“Don’t kill her, she can be useful,” Viper announced to Kian and Finn as they were about to deliver the killing blow to Noelle.
“You got lucky, bitch,” Kian snarled as he raised his first to strike her with just enough force to knock her out cold.
Chapter 8
Testing the Juggernaut
W
hen the team woke, they were in an elaborate colosseum style arena that seemed to be deep underground or in a gigantic cave.
“Why are we still alive?” Noelle groaned aloud, struggling to collect her senses.
“He wants the battle data for Were Inc,” Marie replied as she got to her feet slower than normally.
Her first thought was to look for a weapon or anything that could have been used as a weapon, but nothing around her could have been used as a weapon, unless she wanted to throw dirt in Kian and Finn’s eyes or pelt them with small rocks.
“Battle data trail number 914612 will commence in three, two and one,” announced an automated voice followed by the cave ceiling opening where a holding chamber was suspended.
“Uh, what the hell now!” Aisling grounded, tired, sore and dizzy, holding her head that throbbed in pain. It wasn’t until they all heard the sound of solid rock been crushed by great force that they paid real attention to their situation. The ground shuck with each mighty crushing crack, they shared a look among the three of them before leering at the double doors across the colosseum.
“Oh, goodie another cluster fuck of crap,” Marie grumbled.
The colosseum began to crumble from the constant shaking of the earth when the double door opened to release a symbiote of immense size; this giant symbiote bared down upon the trio, its size was so great it made the serpents in the emerald bay seem like tadpoles.
“Oh, we gonna fucken die!” Aisling drawled as she backed away from it with Marie.
“Project Mortal, juggernaut class trial underway, recoding, commenced, battle data streaming, commenced,” the automated voice announced again, echoing throughout the arena.
“Juggernaut huh, okay, it’s to be a fight to the death then,” Noelle muttered to herself.
“Come on then, you murderous bitch!” Roared Marie, ready to fight against an enemy she had no clue how to defeat, however, if she was going to die, she wasn’t willing to go down without a fight, she had been through too much to be frightened anymore.
Kian, Finn and Viper must have been watching the death match from somewhere nearby, but the team would need to focus their attention completely on the oozing juggernaut that made its way towards them surprisingly quickly! All Aisling and Marie could do was run and struggle to avoid the creature, hoping it would not be able to catch them until they found a way to defeat it. The pair ducked into a small secondary enclosure to the side of the arena where they found dead Were Inc soldiers.
“They’ve been dead for about four years judging by the state of the bodies. Take their weapons, it’s better than being empty handed!” Marie shouted to Aisling.
“45cal SOCOM pistols!” Aisling muttered, tossing one to Marie.
“Fully loaded, with eight clips still in his vest and not a bullet casing anywhere, he died in an instant, probably of a heart attack after seeing that thing,” Aisling explained as she searched the body.
“Focus on the juggernaut, everything else can wait!” Marie instructed, peeking out to the battle between Noelle and the juggernaut.
Noelle was trying to strand toe to toe with the massive symbiote. She was avoiding its hands and its outstandingly long reach, and she somehow picked up an impossibly heavy fallen pillar to strike the juggernaut with breaking the pillar into several bits.
It clearly hurt the juggernaut symbiote as its groans indicated, “Damn.”
Aisling yelped as she watched Noelle’s great achievement.
That was until the juggernaut’s body became as hard as the stone pillar Noelle had struck it with, it seemed to be no longer being affected by her basic attacks, but she could do nothing else.
“Now!” Marie yelled, running out to the arena with Aisling, firing their weapons at the stone juggernaut.
“Noelle, get back!” Aisling shouted.
Noelle was short of breath and drained from the constant struggle. Noelle backed away from the symbiote, still staggered by its size. Aisling and Marie fired upon it, careful to conserve ammunition; its new stone coating seemed to slow its movements enough for Aisling and Marie to avoid its arms with little hassle. Noelle could only watch on, as she caught her breath and examined the dead soldiers her protectors had found earlier. Aisling was quick and nimble with her shapely powerful legs, she was able to outrun the massive reach of the juggernaut. Marie, however, wasn’t as lucky, she misjudged the reach of the juggernaut and was grabbed by the right hand that held her tight and high in the air far out of Aisling’s reach. Aisling tried to think if there was any way she could free Marie from its grasp, but there was nothing she could think of. Marie let out an unmerciful cry of extreme pain as the hand tightened its grip, crushing a number of her bones with each inch its grip tightened.
“Aisling, aim for that thing up there!” Noelle shouted as she dragged the dead bodies that Aisling and Marie had found out into the arena.
“What’s in it?” asked Aisling.
“I’ve got a good idea, just do it, I’ve got a goddamn plan,” replied Noelle, running to Aisling, pushing her out of the way of the juggernaut’s left hand.
Noelle rolled head over heels then sprang into action, grabbing two hand grenades from one of the dead soldier’s belt and quickly ran up the juggernaut’s arm, throwing the two hand grenades into the juggernaut’s gaping mouth before leaping across onto its right arm narrowly avoiding its left hand that came swinging with purpose to grab her.
Noelle made
