The first wave hit hard.
Small gummy things poured through the doorway on all fours, bodies wobbling in translucent reds, yellows and greens. Some had mouths where their faces should have been. Others dragged liquorice claws across the polished floor, leaving sticky black streaks behind them.
Pitch vanished.
A shadow swept beneath three zombies.
They dropped almost simultaneously.
Skye skidded to a halt beside him and raised one hand.
A glowing card spun between his fingers.
“Right, finally—”
Pitch reappeared behind the last zombie.
It fell apart.
Skye stared at it.
Then at his card.
Then at Pitch.
“I was doing that one.”
Pitch shrugged. “Too slow.”
Skye’s eye twitched.
Another gummy creature leapt from the wall.
Skye whipped up a second card.
“Okay. This one is definitely—”
Roselight Blade smashed into it from the side.
The zombie shot across the corridor and disappeared through a glass partition.
Lumina blinked.
Skye slowly lowered his card.
Lumina looked at him.
“Sorry.”
Skye sighed. “At least you actually hit it.”
Then something much larger forced its way through the shattered doors.
Celeste stopped.
“Oh.”
It came through like a knot of living sweets being dragged across the floor.
A long, serpentine body twisted upon itself, made from thick ropes of glossy taffy. Gummy scales ran along its spine in mismatched colours—lime green, strawberry red, blueberry purple, orange and lemon yellow.
At first Celeste thought it had three heads.
Then five rose from behind them.
Then another pushed out from beneath the body.
Every head was different.
One snapped with rows of gummy teeth.
Another had a mouth stretched sideways.
One had no eyes at all.
And behind it dragged an equally ridiculous collection of tails, each one splitting near the end into smaller writhing tendrils.
Topsy pointed.
“Ooooh! Rainbow nightmare noodle!”
The Arcbracers chimed.
TAFFYWYRM
CLASS: ENTANGLER
Silver glanced at the display.
“Subtle.”
The Taffywyrm screamed.
Every head screamed at a slightly different pitch.
Then its tails exploded outward.
Celeste barely had time to lift her swords.
Three taffy tendrils wrapped around her waist.
Another caught her wrist.
“Ah—!”
She was ripped clean off her feet.
“Commander!” Mezzo shouted.
Celeste slammed onto the floor and was dragged several feet toward the creature.
She stabbed one katana down between the floor tiles, sparks screaming beneath the blade as she tried to anchor herself.
The Taffywyrm's tails stretched.
And stretched.
And stretched.
Topsy's eyes widened.
“Oh, I hate that.”
The creature's heads opened.
Each spat a different coloured syrup.
Red.
Blue.
Yellow.
The streams crossed in mid-air—
—and where they touched, they instantly hardened into crystalline candy.
Hughes's expression changed.
“Don't let those colours mix on you!”
A red glob struck the floor beside Celeste.
Blue splattered over it.
CRACK.
The two syrups crystallised at once, locking into a jagged purple mass around the floor.
Celeste stared.
“Oh, that's cheating!”
Another tail wrapped around her ankle.
The Taffywyrm yanked.
Celeste lost her grip on the katana.
Mezzo was already moving.
“Get your sticky rubbish off her!”
His axe came down.
CHOP.
One of the Taffywyrm's tails snapped clean through.
Rainbow filling sprayed across the corridor.
The severed tendril continued writhing around Celeste for another second before going limp.
The Taffywyrm shrieked.
Every head turned toward Mezzo.
Mezzo looked up.
“…Ah.”
The remaining tails lunged.
Hughes struck the floor with his crook.
A deep pulse rolled through the corridor.
The world dragged.
Candy fragments hung in the air.
Falling syrup slowed to thick, suspended droplets.
The Taffywyrm's charging heads crawled forward as though suddenly fighting through deep water.
Even its screams stretched into a warped, droning howl.
Mezzo ducked beneath one slowed jaw.
Celeste tore herself free from the loose tendrils.
Silver loosed three arrows in succession.
Each slipped between the creature's heads and struck joints along its spine.
Then Hughes moved.
Crook.
Elbow.
Shoulder.
Hook.
The first blow smashed one gummy jaw sideways.
The second swept two of the smaller legs from beneath the creature.
The third drove into its ribs.
The final strike caught beneath one head and snapped it upward.
The Taffywyrm staggered.
Hughes stopped.
He planted his crook against the polished floor.
Then leaned on it.
Casually.
One hand resting over the top.
His expression bored.
Almost disappointed.
The slowed Taffywyrm tried desperately to turn toward him.
Hughes waited.
And waited.
One gummy head finally managed to snap its jaws.
Hughes raised an eyebrow.
“Finished?”
Topsy stared at him in awe.
“Ohhhh.”
Skye glanced over.
“Did he just disrespect a zombie?”
Pitch nodded.
“Professionally.”
SHEPHERD'S SWAGGER.
The Arcbracer notification flashed briefly across Hughes's wrist.
The lesser zombies around the Taffywyrm faltered.
Some physically recoiled.
One turned around.
Topsy pointed.
“HE MADE THEM EMBARRASSED!”
Hughes straightened.
“Mezzo.”
Mezzo grinned.
“Got it.”
Fire ignited along the edge of his axe.
He twisted at the waist.
Mana surged down his arms.
Then he swung.
“BLAZING CHORD SLASH!”
A vast flaming arc tore away from the axe.
The wave of heat slammed straight into the Taffywyrm.
Its gummy scales blistered instantly.
Taffy stretched.
Snapped.
Several heads screamed before the fire swept through them.
The creature was hurled backwards through the ruined doorway and smashed against the far wall in a burning heap.
Celeste ripped the final tendril from around her waist.
“Rude.”
One remaining head lifted.
Silver's arrow went through it.
It dropped.
Silence.
For approximately half a second.
Then another cluster of smaller candy zombies came scrambling through the smoke.
Lumina's eyes lit up.
“Mine.”
She pulled the Roselight Blade free.
Pink-white mana bloomed down its edge.
A gummy zombie leapt toward her.
Lumina swung—
An arrow passed directly over her shoulder.
The zombie exploded.
Lumina froze.
Slowly, she looked behind her.
Silver lowered his bow.
“What?”
“That was mine.”
Silver blinked. “It was attacking you.”
“Yes.”
“That is generally when one shoots things.”
Lumina frowned.
Another zombie came charging from the left.
Her ears perked.
She spun.
Roselight flared—
Pitch rose out of its shadow and kicked its legs from underneath it.
One slash.
Dead.
Lumina stopped halfway through her swing.
Her eye twitched.
Pitch looked up.
“…Sorry.”
“You're not.”
“No.”
Behind them, Skye threw his hand forward.
“Yes! Finally!”
Three glowing cards appeared between his fingers.
A liquorice crawler raced across the ceiling.
Skye snapped one card forward.
Pitch flickered.
The zombie hit the ground in pieces.
Skye's card sailed harmlessly through the space where it had been.
Skye stared.
“Pitch.”
Pitch looked over.
“What?”
“I had that.”
“It was alive.”
“That's generally why I was attacking it!”
Another gummy creature rushed them.
Skye summoned a card.
Pitch disappeared.
Skye immediately pointed at him.
“DON'T.”
Pitch reappeared.
“I wasn't.”
The gummy creature made it three more steps.
Lumina smashed it with Heartguard.
Skye closed his eyes.
“Oh, come on!”
“Sorry!”
“You two are doing this deliberately now.”
Lumina saw another zombie crawling from underneath a broken workstation.
“Yes!”
She raised Roselight.
The zombie staggered upright.
Lumina ran toward it.
Two steps.
Three—
A flaming arc from Mezzo's previous attack finally travelled through the doorway and clipped it.
The zombie collapsed into a puddle.
Lumina stopped.
Her sword remained raised.
She stared at the corpse.
Then very slowly lowered Roselight.
“No.”
Celeste glanced over while retrieving her fallen katana.
“You alright, sweetie?”
“No.”
Lumina tapped her Arcbracer.
A little level gauge appeared above it.
The bar had barely moved.
She stared at it.
Then sighed with all the exhaustion a seven-year-old-looking girl could physically contain.
“We are never going to level up at this rate.”
Skye looked at his own.
His had moved even less.
He slowly turned toward Pitch.
“This is your fault.”
Pitch shrugged.
“Skill issue.”
Skye's mouth fell open.
Topsy screamed with laughter.
Even Celeste snorted.
Silver looked between them. “Are we genuinely discussing experience allocation during a facility breach?”
“Yes,” Lumina said.
“Absolutely,” Skye added.
“It matters.”
Silver opened his mouth.
Closed it.
Then apparently decided this was not a battle worth fighting.
“Fine.”
Hughes stepped around the remains of the Taffywyrm and looked down the branching corridors.
The laughter faded.
Three paths.
One toward the east service yard.
One toward the inner gardens.
One leading downward into the research levels.
Somewhere deeper within Godiad, another alarm began to sound.
Different from the others.
Lower.
Urgent.
Hughes frowned.
“We're losing time.”
Celeste's attention shifted immediately back to the mission.
“The labs?”
“Fastest way is splitting up,” Hughes said. “Whatever's attacking this place wants us concentrated in one area. We don't oblige.”
Silver looked toward the lower corridor.
“The research levels will be the primary target.”
“And the service route can take them around us,” Hughes replied. “We keep both covered.”
He nodded.
“Topsy, with me. We'll take the service yard and keep anything from circling back.”
Topsy saluted so hard her ears flopped.
“Yes, goat dad.”
“I have asked you not to call me that in active combat.”
“And yet emotionally, here we are.”
Skye stepped forward, glancing toward Lumina.
“I'll go with Hughes too.”
Lumina nodded quickly.
“Me too.”
Celeste looked over at once.
“You can come with me, if you want.”
Lumina's fingers tightened around her shield strap.
For half a second, something small and hopeful almost reached her face.
Then it shut away.
“It's alright,” Lumina said. “You're too busy.”
Celeste blinked.
“I'm not too busy for you.”
“You are,” Lumina replied, too quickly.
The words came out sharper than she meant them to.
Everyone noticed.
Lumina's ears dipped, but she didn't take it back.
“You've got mission stuff. And the video. And the Director. And…”
Her gaze flicked briefly to Silver.
Then Mezzo.
“…whatever this is.”
Celeste's face softened.
“Lumina—”
“It's fine,” Lumina said, stepping closer to Hughes. “Really.”
She adjusted Heartguard on her arm.
“Have fun with your boyfriends.”
Topsy had somehow acquired a bottle of fizzy orange soda.
No one knew where from.
No one had time to ask.
She took one enormous sip at exactly the wrong moment.
Then spat it everywhere.
A bright orange spray misted across the polished floor as Topsy doubled over, howling with laughter.
“BOYFRIENDS!” she wheezed. “Oh stars—boyfriends!”
Celeste went red.
Not pink.
Not embarrassed.
Red.
Full soul-departing, ears-to-tail, consciousness-leaving-body red.
“They're not—I don't—we're not—Lumina!”
Mezzo slapped a hand to his chest.
“Boyfriend? Singularly wounded I was not consulted.”
Silver recoiled as if physically struck.
“I beg your pardon?”
Topsy pointed at him with the soda bottle, still choking on laughter.
“You heard the child!”
“I most certainly did not.”
“You did,” Ray's voice crackled over comms from somewhere outside. “We all did.”
Silver's ears flattened.
“How are you on this channel?”
“Because Arcade never mutes anything properly.”
Arcade's distant voice shouted, “I heard that!”
Mezzo leaned toward Celeste with a grin sharp enough to be illegal.
“So, Commander. Are we arranging a schedule, or is His Lordship getting weekends?”
Celeste covered her face with both paws.
“Please stop existing.”
Silver drew himself up with wounded dignity.
“For the record, I am not anyone's boyfriend.”
“Yet,” Topsy sang.
Silver pointed at her.
“No.”
Topsy pointed back.
“Suspiciously defensive.”
Mezzo nodded solemnly.
“Very boyfriend behaviour.”
“It is not!”
Celeste made a tiny dying sound.
Lumina, already regretting the words and also not regretting them at all, looked away.
Hughes sighed like a man watching discipline dissolve into soup.
“We are in an active perimeter breach.”
Topsy wiped soda off her chin.
“Sorry. Yes. Zombies. Professionalism. Boyfriends later.”
Celeste lowered her paws just enough to glare.
“There is no later.”
“Not with that attitude,” Mezzo said.
Silver inhaled slowly through his nose.
“I am going to shoot something.”
“Zombies,” Hughes said firmly.
“Yes,” Silver replied tightly. “Obviously zombies.”
Hughes caught Topsy gently by the back of her collar and steered her toward the service yard corridor.
“Come on.”
Topsy pointed back at Silver as Hughes dragged her away.
“BOYFRIEND!”
Silver's tail puffed.
“Topsy.”
“Running away now!”
Skye followed them, muttering something about finally getting a kill before Pitch stole it.
Lumina moved after him.
Still quiet.
Still hurt.
But with her chin lifted.
Celeste watched her go, worry knitting through the embarrassment.
“Lumina…”
Lumina didn't turn back.
Skye did.
Just once.
His expression lost its frustration.
His look said everything clearly enough.
I'll watch her.
Celeste nodded faintly.
Pitch stepped backward into the darkness of the opposite corridor.
“I'll scout ahead.”
Then he disappeared.
The teams split at the junction.
And Celeste remained still for just half a second longer than she should have, staring after her little sister.
Silver noticed.
He said nothing.
For once, so did Mezzo.
What I liked most about the chapter was the way it was both crazy and humorous. That the last part was quite emotional because of the character of Lumina being hurt.