บท 292: Bite, and snap...?

A shimmer rapidly approaches him and Afton swings his Inversal axe at it, but due to its invisibility, he miss-judges the range and doesn't manage to hit it. The shimmer that'd dodged his strike leaps forwards at him, becoming visible and revealing its reptilian head as it tries to bite him.

Afton stuffs his plant arm into its mouth to prevent it from getting a good bite on him, but is forced to fire the last of That Guns bullets at another approaching shimmer. As this happens the Night Stalker that'd bitten him starts throwing itself side to side in an attempt to tear some flesh away from his arm... Fortunately, the bark-like material was simply too difficult to damage via that kind of assault.

Grunting, he lifts his trapped arm and swings the Night Stalker at a nearby shimmer, causing it to slam into one of its brethren and get thrown away, quickly becoming invisible again afterwards.

Afton notices another shimmer charging directly at him, and choosing to leap over it to dodge the attack. Though, this wasn't the best plan of action, as when he splits his legs the Night Stalker materialises and barely misses biting his jewels off.

He doesn't even have time to pale at how close that was as the offending Night Stalker smashing into the concrete wall behind him. Growling, he slams his Inversal axe into it's back, cutting it completely in half and causes the smell of burnt flesh to stink-up the room.

"Behind you!" Nyx exclaims, allowing him to spin away and avoid two charging Night Stalkers that become visible just as they bite down on the vacant spot where he just was. "Thanks Nyx." he says, slicing apart the now-visible creature and turning towards the other shimmers in the room.

He quickly sheaths That Gun and draws Lucky from its own holster, firing the revolver at the shimmers.

*Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!*

He unloads the gun at them, now having a better idea at where their heads were located. Two more drops dead, and he quickly holsters Lucky as well, uses both hands on his new axe. "Come get some you abominations!" he shouts.

The Night Stalkers apparently take this as an invitation as all of the shimmers charge him. He slices apart the first and second, but is unable to dodge as two Night Stalkers lock their jaws around each leg, another leaping to try and tear out his throat.

[Grit is in effect]

He grabs the flying Night Stalker by its neck while swinging down at the one biting his leg, cutting its head clean off. "Stop biting me, please!" Nyx pleads to the blood-crazed beasts, obviously achieving nothing.

With the added strength granted by Grit, Afton squeezes the Night Stalkers neck and snaps it, the creature releasing a pitiful squeal as it goes limp. Afterwards, Afton turns an angry gaze to the last Night Stalker still chewing on his leg. It seems to feel his glare and stops chewing for a moment as it looks up at him.

...

Realising it was outmatched, it lets go and tries to bolt, slowly turning invisible as it retreats. Afton doesn't take kindly to this and grabs its rattle-snake-like tail, slamming it into a wall, a broken fridge, desk, and eventually the floor.

By the time he was done throwing the creature around, it was nothing by a pile of bruised flesh and broken bones. He spits on and checks on his armour and the wounds he'd sustained. He was well aware of the venom these creatures had, it was pretty obvious due to their snake-like heads and fangs. "Nyx, can you take care of the anti-venom? I think I still have a few left."

"I will begin the procedure... Would you be so kind to patch the new holes I've acquired too?" she asks and Afton looks at the torn pieces of fabric the Night Stalkers had managed to get through, though, it was only their frontal fangs that'd actually pierced it.

"Will do, Nyx." he says, allowing the AI to observe the slow repair of [Mechanicus], it wasn't like he could hide it from his sentient clothing, was it?

Afton glances around at the dead Night Stalkers and wonders if he should try to scavenge anything from them... Their pelts were probably useless, first because he'd cut most of them apart, second because they were all disease-ridden and in bad condition in the first place, third because Night Stalkers weren't known for having good hides in the first place.

If he wanted, he could cut their tails off, drain their blood, and see if any were carrying eggs... But didn't see the need to... He wasn't desperate enough to spend an hour cutting them apart for some rather pitiful rewards. It wasn't like he was going to walk away from this place empty-handed though, he'd still acquired a Stealth boy.

He makes his way back up to the room where the holodeck was and approaches the last door. There was a large terminal next to it, and once accessed it only had a single option...

[Unlock elevator to test chamber?]

Shrugging, he selects it and hears a click coming from the metal door beside him. "So, er, what kind of tests will we have to do?" he asks, hoping Nyx would answer.

"The tests accessible at the X-13 Research Facility all include some form of sneaking and or infiltration. Luckily, with me helping you we'll sneak so hard even the sneak-detecting unsneakable robots will struggle to locate us."

"Uh huh... And what stops me from just using the Stealth boy?"

"Why, that would be the proximity mines."

...

"Wait what?" he asks in slight bafflement as they ride the elevator down to the test chamber.

"The proximity mines will detect you regardless of your ability to bypass regular visual sensors. Though, I suppose the laser traps might not work?" Nyx questions, apparently not knowing the answer herself.