Jackie worked the chewed pen from one side of her mouth to the other. Turning from the monitor, she narrowed her eyes at the entity still sitting at the table.

  A dark tendril moved from their main mass, snaking its way down to the plated pancake. On touch, the warm food shrank in size, losing some saturation, as if being turned to dust and vacuumed up. It stared blankly until the given breakfast had vanished completely.

  “How was it?” she asked.

  The two white eyes moved from looking at the plate to observing her. “Much like all matter, decay is inevitable.”

  “Joy,” she murmured, before turning back to the screen. “Maybe now that your weird ghostly stomach is full, you can start thinkin’ about what you really are.”

  The interior of the Omen fell into silence, allowing the mobster to focus on the updating map. It looked as though Sally and the other mooks would be able to make a clean break from their holdout any time now. It would be an out-of-the-frying-pan type deal, but it was better to keep moving rather than be stuck in place while the horde of bugs…

  With a brief crunch, the pen snapped in her mouth. She turned her eyes to the side slowly. The entity was now standing beside her chair, having moved silently. Rather than staring at the mobster ominously, the dark cloud had its eyes up toward the corner of the room.

  As she worked her jaw trying to decide what to say to it, their eyes moved back around to face her. “We aren’t in Space, are we?”

  Jackie pulled a sour face. “Ain’t got no clue. We call it the Sea. Best person to ask about that sort of thing would be Sally.”

  “Where is 'Sally'?”

  The mobster gestured to the monitor and zoomed in on the mountain. She extended a finger and pointed to the small circle representing the zombie. Just as soon as she did, the icon darted off away from her fingertip, as if avoiding her.

  A rush of air whipped through Sally’s hair, not affording her the time to second-guess her request to become a human cannonball. It was only natural after the Death Knight had strapped one of the dwarven heavy weapons to his arm. Her new skeletal pals hadn’t been too keen to open the doors, but they couldn’t deny the roach forces outside had dwindled significantly.

  Between the unassailable hold and damage wrought by the defends, the majority of the forces were either dead or had decided to find something more interesting to bother. The number of bugs remaining wasn’t insignificant, but it was now much closer to something the Outsiders could chew through.

  The zombie zipped through the clouded hallway, exploding out of the end of the tunnel like an undead bullet. She collided with a tall Radoch in short order, drawing a deep gash through its neck with Skeleton Key as they both tumbled to the ground.

  Rolling back up onto her feet, Sally grinned widely. Now in the middle of the remaining forces, but she had drawn the attention of them all. That left enough space to buy the rest of her allies time to keep safe. She held her hand out as more than a dozen warriors darted toward her.

  [Avatar of Life]

  Vines burst out of the ground in a circle around her. Each of these thick green appendages lashed around, blocking and tripping the roaches lunging toward her. Another twenty or so bugs of varying shapes and sizes moved to join their comrades. The rocky ground cracked and churned as the vines emerged, revealing that they were actually roots - snaking their way from Sally’s location.

  As the roots met where she was standing, the shifting earth lifted her into the air. The thick green plants were connected to the base of her feet. With a wet tearing noise, the skin on her legs ripped apart as the snaking vegetation expanded up through her body. Her arms cracked at uncomfortable angles as bones broke, before they too tore apart. Writhing roots extended from the stumps of her rent limbs like the arms of an octopus.

  Sally’s head tilted back, eyes rolling in her skull. Mouth agape, what remained of her body hung limp as her skull split. Two halves of a coconut. But instead of tasty juice, something else emerged from her broken head. A flower head bloomed out, expanding to over ten feet wide as her inert torso fell to the ground like shed snake skin.

  Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

  Instead of a zombie, a giant sunflower now stood before the Radochs. A mass of writhing tendrils propped up the wide grin surrounded by angled petals. Two plate-sized eyes of bright white stared down from above a mouth of several rows of shark-like teeth.

  Briefly stunned, the closest Radoch Initiate was swept up by the grasping roots. Lifted into the air, they were swiftly thrust into the waiting maw of the Avatar. The rows of serrated teeth tore through the roach, shredding them apart like a wood chipper. While this was happening, the other vines ravaged through the bugs.

  One was lifted into the air and broken in two. A sharp jab of one root impaled another Radoch. Several were tripped or struggled against restraining tendrils. Two others were being lifted up into the air in a queue to be consumed.

  Sprays of gore and broken chitinous plates littered the area as the Avatar continued the rampaging feast from its stationary position. As the two remaining leaders of the Radoch opposition called for a retreat, vines grabbed one before it could escape, funneling the well-dressed insectoid into the whirring jaws of the giant sunflower.

  The Avatar dropped the spent corpse to the ground, the last of the enemy way beyond reach. Other than the spattering of dripping gore and the clicking crunch of plating between various tendrils, the area was now silent.

  After observing the scene for a few quiet seconds, the sunflower's eyes dulled. Starting from the edges of the petals and tips of the roots, decay darkened, shriveling each tendril. The plant died, dried up and aged at a rapid pace.

  As the head of the sunflower shriveled and sank downward, it split in half. While the main body turned to ash, the parting plantlife revealed a fresh shape emerging from within.

  Sparkling clean and fresh, Sally unfurled and stood up straight, the remains of the fading plant melting away around her. With a grin on her face, she turned back to the tunnel to see a few figures appear from the fading smoke.

  The first was Edward, with an uncharacteristic look of surprise in his eyes. “I’ve… never seen that one before.”

  “It’s one of the two Ultimates my demi-godhood gave me. Limited in application and… actually agonizingly painful.” Her grin didn’t waver.

  “Coming from you, that is concerning.” The demon pulled a face, knowing the extent of her combat experience.

  Humphrey was close behind, his helmet fire illuminating the smoke before his large form emerged out into the open. Archie was sitting on his shoulder, with a curious expression on his face.

  “Any luck in getting decent reports?” he asked.

  Sally nodded. “Forwarded them to the Omen and Bully already.”

  While she had no personal appetite for gorging on the bugs, her Avatar form was less picky. Not that hunger was the driving force behind her plan of chewing through the forces that had been loitering outside the dwarven tunnel.

  The giant sunflower had no stomach to speak of, but absorbed the life-force of its victims in a different way. Chuck had observed this and added his own patch to the process. Although it wasn’t much use to Sally, consuming a body filled out a report with all the scientific data detailing how they were made. Both in a squishy biological way and in a System way.

  Nothing that she could make use of, but the Alchemist might be able to do something with it. Having the Omen send that to Sanctuary was a boon for the future conflict against the bugs.

  “So what now?” the Death Knight asked. “You mumbled most of the plan as you were too excited to be fired from the cannon.”

  “Bitches love cannons, Pops.” Sally clicked her fingers. “We’re keeping it simple, though. Jackie says the Radoch ship to the west isn’t the closest, but is the path of least resistance. While Bully cooks us up some flasks of deus ex machina, we’re going to find a way to get Eddy up in the alien ship.”

  Edward still looked rather uncomfortable with the idea, but his default sinister glare had returned. “Then I’ll either steal their secrets, or try to crash it into you two for the-”

  “Ultimate Betrayal, yeah, yeah.” She rolled her eyes. “Just LARP as a Radoch and betray them if that scratches the itch.”

  The demon frowned and rubbed his chin. “Might be a tough sell, but maybe I’ll workshop that idea.”

  “Sure, great.” Sally turned her attention to the Death Knight. “Have you considered that swinging around your greatsword is going to be difficult with a cannon strapped to your left arm?”

  “Yes.” Humphrey deflated slightly. “I’m afraid that won’t stop me, however.”

  “Like, how do you even reload it? Some manner of System interface, or are you planning to carry around the necessary materials and projectiles?”

  “Wait… and see?”

  Sally tutted and shook her head. “Too vague. Both of you are on looting duty now, as punishment.”

  Although Edward complained about being lumped in with the Death Knight, the pair started sifting through the dead bodies littering the area. Somewhat unfair, as they had a limited Inventory compared to the zombie.

  She grinned as the cat escaped from the designated labor and walked over to her. “Ready for an intense combat montage?”

  “I’m rather… ambivalent about the idea.”

  “That’s a long word.” Sally wrinkled up her nose. “You feeling okay?”

  Archie sat and looked out down the mountain to where the forest was. “The longer I spend on this world, the more… odd I feel. Less like myself, yet more like myself.”

  “Who are you, really?”

  His emerald eyes turned back up to her. “I’m not sure, and I’m actually afraid to find out.”