Chapter 5 #3
Blaster bolts began scorching her from every direction, but she simply stood still in the face of the attacks. She smiled at the many men who had been leering at her only moments before, who now recognized the danger she posed.
Her mycelial suit hissed as the low-powered blasters caused her suit to exude steam to bleed off the heat and prevent damage to herself.
There were no less than a dozen of them, though even as they all fired on Lily, the hits did absolutely nothing.
She grabbed a blaster out of one of their hands with the same effort a human might use to take something from a small child, then lifted another man up and hurled him straight into the mycelial mass as it continued expanding.
Threads of Lily’s mass stabbed into multiple figures in the room, the mycelial network burying deep within their skin and leeching nutrients at a visible rate, their flesh growing thin and shrinking around their frames until they looked quite sickly.
At this point, they were all screaming. Lily picked up one of the fallen blasters and began quickly and succinctly ending those running with a shot to the head. From everything she'd been taught so far, that was the humane way to kill.
At present, she just needed their nest. Their biomass was a pleasant bonus as she’d only brought a small chunk of her mycelial network, and it would need nutrients to expand.
“Die!” The nekyra jumped for Lily, a large dagger in his hands.
She simply reached up and caught his forearm; the blade hung a safe few inches from her face and outside any risk of him flexing his wrist and scratching her face in a way that would most certainly concern the captain.
“You are weaker than you appear,” she said to the lion-like man who was easily twice her size. “My condolences on your realization.” Swiftly, she brought her other hand forward to cave his chest in and toss him on the mycelial mass.
“Stop, or I kill him.” The kikai held a blaster pointed at Lily’s captain.
Rayden, for his part, appeared calm, trusting her as he stood by the door, having blocked one of them from escaping at the cost of some skin off his knuckles. “I’d put that down,” Rayden suggested to the kikai.
“Na. She’s been protecting you. Thus, you are the weak spot." The kikai shook the blaster at her captain.
Lily paused to examine the situation. There was no risk to herself; however, she found that it didn’t matter.
A risk to the captain was sending her body into a strange feeling.
Everything felt slower; her body tingled like it was suddenly firing signals faster.
The oddest thing was, however, that her mind had snapped closed, and the only thing she could see or even think about was killing the kikai.
As the mindless mycelial mass attached to her foot, she gained full control of it and coiled up tension like a spring about to snap.
“You will regret endangering him,” she said, her voice coming out like it was torn from a ragged edge.
The kikai’s eyes went wide with fear when he turned to her, and a spine shot out from the mycelial mass and right through his elbow, severing the arm that had been holding the blaster. “Aaah!” He screamed and fell to the floor, cradling the stump.
“A mistake was made.” Lily scooped up some of the mycelial mass, a string connecting this glob to the rest, and took the knife from the nekyra as she stood over the kikai.
“Please,” he begged through snot and tears.
“You held no mercy as you pointed that blaster at MY captain.” Lily was swift with the knife, opening a wound in the gut before stuffing the mycelial mass into it as the kikai shrieked once and then froze.
“Are you okay, Lily?” Rayden walked up and put a hand on her shoulder.
She should have snapped; after all, she was in the middle of a hunt and wound tight. Instead, all that tension bled away, and Lily relaxed with a smile. “I’m wonderful. Please allow me to clean up.”
Using her suit, she absorbed the blood on her so as to not get Rayden messy and started pushing the bodies closer to the rapidly growing mass.
“Do as you wish,” Rayden said, beginning to collect some of the fallen weapons. “We’ll probably need to clean this place up before the others come.” Rayden then paused and pulled out his tablet. “Ah, shit. Brick says it will be at least two weeks.” He grumbled and began moving through the building.
She stood there for a moment as her mycelial mass consumed the bodies before sinking into the floor and spreading throughout the structure. She pulled out her captain's stress-o-meter.
"Oh good, he's not too worried yet." Lily smiled.
Her captain was heartier than he had been before.
She petted the connection to him as thoughts about how to improve the captain flitted through her mind.
Given enough time, she was certain that she could transform Rayden into the perfect predator to hunt with her.
The idea of hunting side by side sent a thrill through her before an idea made her stop.
Was this a successful date? They had walked, met and conversed with strangers, and had a meal. Wait. No, only she’d eaten. Was that too selfish? She should do something for the captain.