595 only made it a few more strides before the creature she’d hit with her shotgun reappeared. Clambering up onto the platform, ablaze with light blue fire and screeching manically, it slashed at her with one of its dagger-like legs. The Agent dived away from the lunge, rolled among the slithering vines, jumped to her feet, turned and swung the blade with all her might.

The plasma blade scythed straight through the middle of the monster’s beak as it rushed forward, cutting the end off each. It reared up and pirouetted madly to get away; its razor tail flicked round smashed into 595’s side. She flew through the air towards the stairs, scraping her helmet against the ceiling then bouncing off a vine-covered pillar before rolling over a few times, right into the path of second creature. The automatically deactivated blade clattered by the steps.

Moving to cut off Vreta and Freyr before this bite-sized woman arrived in its lap, the female creature charged forward, jaws extending out past its beak to crunch 595’s neck.