章 249: 'Rooting' out the problem...

After the incendiary round exploded the thick fog of spores lingering in the room had cleared to a small degree, this meant that the spores were at least somewhat susceptible to fire. If only Afton had kept the Flamers and Incinerators he used to have.

"Quickly, again!" exclaims as he ducks under a swipe from the whip-like root. It was fortunate that he had too! Since the wall that'd been struck now had a sizeable dent decorating it.

He unloads the rest of the bullets in That Gun at the recovering root and blows a good portion of it apart. With that he glances at Anja to see if she'd managed to reload it yet and nods when she cocks the bolt. "Fire there!" gestures towards the Spore Carrier controlling the roots, though they were unlikely to hit it as it was a fair distance away and still concealed by the spores.

*BAANG!*

Again, the Anti-Material rifle fires and sent a bullet flyings in the direction of the target. Unfortunately, it is way off and hits the wall behind it, still, the incendiary round does its job and ignites a good portion of the spores. This also manages to clip the Spore Carrier, causing it to release a raspy growl in response.

Afton holsters the empty That Gun and stills for a moment before reaching for the Laser rifle he'd stored in his backpack. If the Incendiary bullets were able to ingite the spores, then wouldn't superheated lasers be able to?

The rifle is heavy in one arm, but he has enough strength to heft it up and pull the trigger in the direction of the enemy.

*PWWWUUUUSH!*

A thick green laser beam explodes from the rifle, the kick of it almost blowing the weapon clear out of his hand. The attack flies through the room and strikes the Spore Carrier in its shoulder, most importantly, all the spores it travels through are instantly destroyed, a large area around the laser burning them away.

He fires a couple more times randomly, not seeking to hurt the enemy but to just remove the spores, Anja fires a couple more Incendiary rounds and after a few minutes of this, the room is entirely cleared of spores.

There's no time to celebrate however as now they were able to properly see the Spore Carrier that'd been attacking them. From the silhouette, Afton had been able to see how much larger it was compared to the others, but that wasn't the only difference... Instead of green bark skin it was grey like rock. It's legs were fused with the ground, somehow connected to the maze of roots covering the room.

Last but not least, it's arms were not even arms, but the roots that'd been attacking them up until now... Though, both looked heavily damage from their assault on it. Afton hefts the Laser Rifle and points it at the monster, but before he's able to destroy it the roots underneath him snap into action, wrapping his legs tightly together. Apparently, those root-arms aren't the only things its able to control.

Anja fires an incendiary round at the floor next to Afton's feet, igniting a large portion of the roots and allowing him to escape their grasp as they wave around and erratically attack everything in reach.

After being freed he fires another beam at the creature, the superheated blast strikes it in the chest, liquifying whatever organs it has left. Another shot burns a hole straight through its chest, causing a chain reaction where its upper body simply disintegrates into ash.

With that done they both breathe a sigh of relief, it was one thing fighting regular spore carriers, but fighting a mutated one with who knows how many abilities? Very stressful to say the least.

Afton glances around the room now that he's able to see the place properly, was relatively large and had large cordoned off bays in the middle of it, they were filled with what looks like soil, and plants of every kind were growing from them.

He spots the devastated corpse of the Spore Plant, the venus fly trap-creature tht shot some sort of projectile at him. He gives it a nudge with his foot and is surprised by how tough the material that composed its body was. It was like leather, but less dry and more slippery.

Shaking his head he walks over to Anja, "I think we've found a way to deal with the spores now." he says, passing her the prototype laser rifle and strapping the Anti-Material rifle onto his back. "You know how to use it, right?"

Anja shakes her head and Afton is forced to quickly go through the ways to operate it. Once he was 'relatively' sure she'd be able to use it without killing him or herself, he looked to the sealed door on the other side of the room.

He was 110% sure there'd be more mutated creatures down here, so they'd need to be prepared for anything. He props the axe next to the door and readies That Gun as he opens it, immediately activating VATS when the fog of spores floods into the room.

OOOOOoooooooohhhhhhhh shit! He mentally intones as he sees just how many enemies there were in the hallway set before him. "Anja... Start, shooting." he says in as low a tone as he can manage in order to not attract their attention.

His companion does as ordered and immediately starts randomly spraying laser beams through the doorway. Afton was momentarily confused by the fact the weapon wasn't dealing as much damage as last time, but eventually realises that his Perk had been boosting its power.