The Cyborg System-Chapter 76: A Colony of Rabbits

As they approached the edge of the cover from the trees, the beasts’ appearance became clearer. Truth be told, rabbits were the closest facsimile of what they were seeing, but other than their size, there were several other noticeable differences. Firstly, they had significantly larger heads with pronounced jaws and teeth; secondly, their front paws were more like small claws; and their powerful back legs looked a little more muscular. Still, the overall shape and furry appearance made these look like a distant relative in the same family. The beasts looked to be scavengers, and it was mainly their numbers which caused alarm, rather than the difficulty or damage that each one could perform by itself.

Lenny wondered what abilities the rabbit creatures had in store. This could make a significant difference in how difficult they were to deal with. Poison for instance was challenging for his close quarters combat style. Others might prove resistant against his or his allies’ abilities.

"System, scan..."

"The Ubiquitous Jack... a relatively dangerous scavenger tier beast. Their multiplication affinity and habit of hunting in large groups makes them a dangerous foe capable of hunting down small groups of prey."

"Wait, multiplication?" Lenny thought. He went to warn the group, but it was too late. Nicholas had stepped out and thrown a ball of flame directly at one of them. Having eyes on the side of its head, it had a wide field of view and quickly sprang to the side.

The beasts all turned to face the group, then glowed white as they each separated into two and three beasts.

"Shit," said Nicholas.

What had been a somewhat dangerous group of beasts, outnumbering them roughly two to one, was now three times the size.

As the beasts sprinted towards them, Harry pounded them with columns of earth, not worried about preserving his essence, while Nicholas shot them with fireballs. Although they were spry, Nicholas managed to kill one first, and it evaporated into white light. A few moments later, Harry killed one too, and rather than evaporating into white light, its body lay still while two of the other beasts evaporated.

"Kill the originals," Lenny shouted.

"How do we know which is which?" asked Nicholas.

No one had an answer. It was just blind luck at this point, like drawing lots. They had managed to take out four of the thirty beasts, but now they had already closed the distance, bringing the others into the fight.

Lenny threw out a jab and a right hook. He activated the flame affinity of his gauntlets, singing the beast, but not outright killing it, which would take a couple more hits. Vee sent her bird out like a missile, aiming for one of the beast’s eyes, but it moved at the last moment.

Harry switch tactics, trying out another ability he had been reading about, by using a punishing amount of essence to create a large crater in the centre of the rabbits, trapping a couple of them while causing others to travel further around it, slowing them down from completely overwhelming the group. He tried to summon another, but after a small shaking of the ground, a kind of spiritual exhaustion ran over him.

"I’m out," said Harry.

"I’m a bit busy here," said Lenny unable to pause or let up for even a moment. He threw a heavy cross and the beast he was up against fell back into the hole. He looked towards Vee.

"Aim for the hole," she said, acknowledging the approach that Harry had set up for them. Maybe they really could all work together, once they practiced enough to find out their collaborative strengths.

Meanwhile, Nicholas had a growing pile of flaming corpses surrounding him. Though it would have been more, if not for the duplicates. He was the only one making a significant dent in their number, other than Harry’s initial trap. It had gotten to the point he was having to kick the flaming bodies back with his feet to stop them burning his allies.

They’d taken out just over a third, trapped four more, and though this was a promising start, Harry was now completely drained and Vee too. Although the two hand-to-hand combat fighters were landing a large number of strikes and avoiding the most serious of claws and teeth, the damage was slowly accumulating on their bodies. Vee had a particularly nasty gash on her calf which was making it hard for her to move on her feet like she usually would.

At that point, though, they heard a sound that no one expected: a scream. Looking back, they could see it had come from the spot they had just come from, where they had left Ollie.

"I’ll go," said Nicholas.

"No," said Lenny. "We need you here, I’ll go."

As much as he hated to admit it, Nicholas knew he would need stay right here, although even he was beginning to run a little low and would have to start using his essence more conservatively.

Lenny sprinted back into the woods, running up the hill as fast as he could. Just then, there was another scream.

"Shit," he thought. "I don’t know if I’m gonna make it in time."

"Adrenaline Rush activated..."

He didn’t want to do it, but by this point, he didn’t know if he had a choice. As he quickly sprinted back to the spot, he could see Ollie was being attacked by a giant red squirrel. It had already slashed him, give him defensive wounds across his forearms. He’d arrived just in time. He was glad he had saved his Black Shuriken, not wanting to lose it in all the chaos. He threw it directly at the squirrel’s neck.

"10 seconds remaining..."

The thick fur and skin of the prey tier beast had protected it slightly. Still, the Black Shuriken had stuck in its neck and a thin stream of blood leaked from the wound. The giant red squirrel turned its head to face him and Ollie sprinted off in the opposite direction.

"Don’t go far," Lenny shouted.

A clawed hand made for his chest, but he evaded it.

"Seven seconds remaining..."

There was no point being conservative, he just had to go all out, activating the flames on his gauntlets with every strike.

"15 essence remaining... 12 essence remaining... 9 essence remaining..."

A flaming fist had landed in the beast’s face, burning its eye. It screamed out, but there was no time to let up.

The beast lashed out blindly, and though Lenny had tried to dodge, in his haste to finish it off, he’d moved in far too close and was unable to move out of range in time.

The slash wound across the chest had scraped his sternum and caused a large rift through his flesh. Instant pain could be felt, but he had no time to process as the familiar notification came.

"Three seconds remaining..."

"Damn, I didn’t want to have to do this..." he thought. He forearm slammed the Black Shuriken sticking out of the beast’s neck. At that point, the blade cut through the beast’s jugular, killing it, but also stuck in his forearm, wedging into the steel plating and even slicing the bone.

"Adrenaline rush deactivating. The penalty must now be paid."

Lenny fell to the floor with the beast on top of him. He would need some time to recover, and the Red Squirrel lying on top of his body wasn’t going to help things either. He laid there for a minute or two, catching his breath, before hearing a familiar voice.

"Lenny?" asked Nicholas. "You need a hand?"