Snippet #2822299

Inferno’s focus on Devon was unrelenting, perpetually moving, clawing, tearing, slashing, the shaft on its buzzsaw arms flexile like scorching whips. ”GOH-!” Klaus’s stasis disc provided those precious two seconds of respite...

...Which Devon and Vic alike took advantage of. His mace bent the metal saw and crushed its geas. Her air cannon crumpled his turbine, blew off his left wing cover, and sent lava-coloured guts and molten metal gore splattering out of his ruptured back.

”SKREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE….!”

The metal insect stepped back, and further. Blood-like lava trickled down his newly formed cavity, carving grooves into his own armour. Grooves which were soon riddled and by a new barrage of bullets. Ice and impact spread cracks across the broken armour. Inferno’s bent saw arm turned a bright orange, melted, and reshaped into a vast, towering shield. He bent his knees and hunkered low. Devon’s bullets pelted his shield with a crescendo of clanks and ricochets, but it stood strong.

...Of course, the shield did little to protect him from Richard’s assault. His mandibles clicked and he screamed, and thrashed, and screamed and thrashed. Any other human who dug his hand into the creature’s guts would’ve had their limb melted off in an instant… but Richard had the power of cryokinesis at his side.

”RAAAAAAAAAA!! A THOUSAND CURSES ON YOU AND YOUR PROGENY! May they forever BURN IN GEHENNA!”

The viscera in Richard’s hand quickly hardened into steel, and the blood melted into the sand and crumbled into glass.

Lava continued to spurt and pour from Inferno’s wound. The moment the heroes started chatting and theorising, Inferno reshaped his tower shield into a disc-shaped one, then pitched it towards Devon and Richard in an arc, the heavy object spinning on its axis as it launched.

Inferno jumped backwards. His wing cover parted and exposed insectoid wings of flame, which took him far, far, and further, towards the edge of a beach, until his talons slammed down on the roof of a car, crumpled its roof, and sent its windows shattering into a storm of glass. A high-pitched sound came from within his core as the vehicle overheated, imploded, and then absorbed into his body, reshaped into metal patches that plugged his wound shut.

”I will ANNIHILATE YOU!” The monster announced, his booming voice audible even to the shores. The remains of the vehicle which he did not absorb spun around him rapidly, then slammed together, forming a gigantic, misshapen cannon, its seams still raw with red-hot, volcanic cracks. He tilted back and aimed the cannon high.

Boom.

Boom.

Great balls of iron and flame launched from the barrel, high towards the skies… then arched down, down, down, towards where Vic and Klaus stood.

BOOM!

The mortars exploded the instant they touched ground, scattering sand, fire, shrapnel, and shock waves all around them.

Boom. Boom. BOOM!

Inferno fired on and on, periodically absorbing the metals from his surroundings to refuel his mortar.

---

Even as sand turned to glass and explosions rang their ears, Scourge and Lilian remained out of Inferno’s bombardment range as they departed. He glanced towards the Doctor, her fingers around two of his massive ones to keep him from interfering. Even as worry tugged at Scourge’s heart, and his mind drifted towards Vic.

She’ll be fine, he thought. She DID kick my ass.

Still, Scourge couldn’t help but wonder. ”Hey, Doc. What do ya got against Vic?” He asked, his eyes wide and questioning.