Round 01 - Hopelessly

My mind was in turmoil. Did he say 25 assault units? 280 highly-armed individuals with technologies that could easily dominate the entire world. To defeat 2 or 3 creatures?

In the midst of the portal, energy formed what looked like a veil. Constant waves distributed a blend of white, purple, and light blue particles.

The hall was silent; everyone was at the ready with their weapons. Just ahead, I saw Alex and Victor's group prepared. Further ahead were some with enormous tower shields carrying weapons with blades that closely resembled a curved sword.

Right behind them, scattered, I saw lighter firearms in the hands of the combatants. Probably to facilitate the constant movement of closer combat.

Suddenly, a massive trunk, resembling that of an oak tree, flew out of the portal. About 26 feet long with a thickness of around 20 inches. Splintered at both ends as if violently torn from where it was planted. What looked like bark had a dull hue, hard to discern, resembling lead gray. The core oozing a light green liquid, as if the plant was bleeding in agony.

The object bounced on the ground three times, carrying enough kinetic energy to reach the vanguard. Alex quickly stepped out from among his companions, drawing what looked like a 6.5-foot saber, which lit up in neon white. The weapon easily sliced the projectile, which spun to the sides, rotating around its own center until it stopped. The ground was marked by a green stain.

No one hesitated.

A brief moment of silence.

A multitude of creatures began to pour out of the portal. Exoplanetary fauna.

Tripedal creatures, showing no symmetry in their structure, what looked like an oval trunk, with two less-developed limbs protruding from the front and a larger limb from the back. The creatures had a brown hue, as if coming from a color palette never seen before. Their bodies had various orifices, making it hard to discern if they had eyes or mouths. What looked like fur covered parts of their bodies—fur with a characteristic close to soot.

It was hard to understand the irregular movement of the creatures. They were like a mix of animals, a gorilla-buffalo if I tried to explain it that way.

The sound was shrill, a deafening frequency; the noise they made would surely have left us deaf if we weren't prepared with specific earmuffs.

Being creatures the size of a donkey, no larger than a horse, our defense started very efficiently, to my surprise.

The powerful front holding the advance and the flanks vigorously protecting any attempt of opponent penetration. We, further back, remained motionless.

Maxwell frantically commanded and organized the ranks that danced to his command—a true spectacle of synchrony and discipline.

For nearly an hour, the battle was about holding advances from what seemed like mere wild animals from another planet. After the bodies piled up, the Captain gave a command; everyone in the front line aligned themselves, stepping back a little, and quickly, the ground opened and closed, swallowing the bodies.

Gargantuan entities began to emerge one after another. If I were to describe them, they resembled a spider-mammoth hybrid. Six twisted, symmetrical limbs protruded from their bodies. A snout, akin to that of a shark, adorned what I assumed was their head, crowned by a ring of three-foot-long spikes. A massive orifice, presumably their mouth, dominated their front.

These titanic behemoths, no less than 16 feet in size and weighing an estimated 11,000 pounds, signaled our turn to act. Marie raised her hand, three fingers extended, and the snipers unleashed their fury. Beams of light, resembling grenade explosions but with a greenish hue, struck the creatures, causing them to retreat or collapse. It took no fewer than fifteen shots to bring down each one.

Maxwell issued a command that I couldn't quite catch. "Grab the blue boxes with a white circle, Dante, and deliver them to the snipers on the left," Vitor urgently instructed. I immediately set to work. The boxes were light; I could carry five at a time. Within two minutes, my task was complete. I administered injections to enhance the snipers' cognitive abilities at intervals.

"Brace yourselves!" Maxwell roared. "The gate is reacting to an effective invasion."

Time seemed to slow around me. I could hear my heartbeat pumping blood into my muscles as my skin turned pale, my body entering a state of stress. Every warrior was focused, unflinching, eyes glued to every nuance of the portal. 

Vitor had told me that the portal's pattern could indicate which effective would come through. A stronger blue hue for the Twisted, a weaker blue for the Whips, and a static energy veil for the Jumpers. Each different species of effective caused a unique reaction in the portal. Vitor said he knew six different patterns, but he had met a veteran medic who knew fifteen.

Not that he had ever seen a Jumper; few had. He said when one of those appeared, there were usually few left to tell the tale.

Creatures ceased to pour out of the portal, a phenomenon that had been constant for nearly 90 minutes. The front line was still engaged, dealing with the remaining creatures, the flanks assuming an 'L'-shaped combat position, and we were in the back, still targeting the enormous, spiky colossi.

It was as if a cold hand had reached into the core of my being, clutching my heart in an icy grip. My skin tingled as if electrified, and my breaths became shallow, rapid. Time seemed to slow, each second stretching into an eternity as my mind raced but found no answers, no solutions. My eyes darted around, seeing but not comprehending, as if the familiar world had suddenly become alien and hostile. My limbs felt heavy, unresponsive, as if they were no longer a part of me but rather some foreign appendages I couldn't control. The sensation was paralyzing, a profound helplessness that made me question everything I had ever known about myself. I, who had always been in control, who had always known what to do, was now adrift in an ocean of uncertainty and dread.

For the first time in my life, I knew what fear was.

The shimmering veil of the portal froze, suspended in time. I couldn't hear anything, only observe everyone slowly turning, their faces etched with urgency and despair. In the background, Maxwell was screaming into a megaphone, saliva flying. Marie turned and began signaling, her expression one of fear—a sentiment I now understood.

"Dante!" Vitor yelled. I quickly looked in his direction. "Red box with a white circle, go!" He was rummaging through one of the barrels as he spoke to me.

My limbs acted on their own, quickly filling my arms with red boxes. One fell, but I didn't spare a second to look back. Within moments, they were replenished. "Plain red box for the heavy shooters!" Vitor informed me. The boxes for the heavy shooters were larger; I could only carry one at a time.

I hadn't even replenished two of the heavy shooters when something seemed to squeeze my heart—a chilling grip. I looked at the gate. Out came a tripedal creature, no more than four feet tall. It was pitch black, a darkness so profound it was hard to tell if it was reflecting light or if I was staring into a void. Three eyes were clearly visible on its front, each emitting a smoky light that flickered through the air before dissipating. Its thin limbs, what I could call feet, were like dual blades that cut into the ground, cracking the hard rocks beneath.

Its presence was terrifying. I was scared. Horrified by what I was seeing.

Everyone was. The megaphone fell silent; Maxwell was in shock, staring into the abyss that threatened us. For the first time, the alien fauna managed to bring down some members of the front line, who were devoured in front of their motionless comrades, paralyzed by the presence of the Jumper.

Then it roared—a consonant scream, impossible to mimic with a human mouth, both shrill and deep, the two tones emerging simultaneously.

I managed to break the spell of terror before anyone else and continued to move to replenish the shooters. When I turned, I saw the officers all backed away and near the elevator. Aurora was among them.

As I sprinted to fulfill my role, I noticed everyone regaining consciousness; soon, uninterrupted gunfire erupted. The Jumper assumed what looked like a combat stance. From behind it, tentacles emerged that seemed to be on fire, yet it was a fire as dark as the creature itself. No fewer than twenty tentacles began to spin at an absurdly high speed. I vaguely realized something was happening: they were perfectly defending the creature from each shot.

I finished replenishing the shooters as quickly as I could. Grabbing my rifle, I assumed a standing firing position, trying to find a gap but to no avail. My shot, a small sphere that spun on its own tangent, tracing a slightly curved line, crossed the hall only to explode in mid-air—one of the largest explosions caused so far. Marie had explained that the rifle I was using had the highest destructive power of all the armaments but was seldom used due to its low efficiency.

I took ten seconds to survey the battlefield. The Jumper's tentacles found gaps between the shots to strike some of my comrades. Their bodies instantly split open, catching fire and melting as if sinking into lava. My thoughts were empty. There was no logic to formulate behind what was happening.

"Dante, that Jumper seems to be one of the mature ones. It won't be easy to bring it down; they'll probably send the gate to the second assault unit, and we'll have to handle this," Vitor arrived at my side, panting.

"How the hell do we bring down a monster like that?" I asked, my voice shaky.

"All we need is one shot. Just one shot getting past the Jumper's defense is enough to destabilize it," Vitor said, and I could sense hope trying to blossom in his voice.

I saw a distortion in the air around the creature; everything stopped again. Suddenly, it disappeared into what seemed like a spatial distortion around it and reappeared on the left side of the hall, amid Alex's unit. Its tentacles spun, and I saw multiple bodies flying. Limbs, heads, all aflame, scattered in all directions. A cloud of blood misted the air.

For a brief moment, there was shock, but the gunfire resumed. The fighters didn't care if they would hit their comrades, which happened; the focus was on hitting the creature. The carnage slowly extended. The Jumper's focus was defense.

Strangely, I felt as if this seemed like a hunting ritual for the creature, like a cat playing with a mouse before killing it. This wasn't combat; it was a one-sided massacre.

I thought about taking some shots, but I feared hitting the people around me. I couldn't rationalize what the best course of action would be. Logically, I should shoot; after all, everyone would eventually be torn apart. The odds of victory lay in committing to fire, yet something held me back.

A sound of mechanisms triggered; I instinctively looked at the gate and noticed it was slowly rising. Glancing at the ceiling, I saw what appeared to be a hatch opening. I connected the dots, and my mind returned to logical thinking, which was what I needed most at that moment. I understood why I had to press the elevator arrow 27 times. The other assault units were distributed on different floors. I had ended up on the last one, meaning the first unit to engage in combat.

Due to the Jumper's presence, the invasion on this floor had ceased, leaving only one enemy. I didn't know the power of other forms of effectives, but the one in our presence was undoubtedly the most potent. It's impossible for humanity to have survived this long fighting something more powerful than this.

Why was humanity fighting these creatures?

What was the reason for this place's existence? 

As the gate rose, I couldn't help but ponder everything that was happening.

  Some creatures, far less threatening, still emerged through the gate, even as it ascended.

With a plan in mind, I began firing at the creatures emerging from the gate. My shots were lethal for the most part, taking down several of them every 10 seconds. After each shot, the rifle heated up considerably, slowly emitting smoke from its sides. I could feel it cooling down, making a sound similar to the dialing of old telephones. A light near the rifle's sight alternated between blue, indicating it was ready to fire, and white, indicating it was cooling down.

Every ten shots, I had to reload the weapon, which took nearly thirty seconds to grab the small capsules from the box on the ground and place them one by one into a slot that opened by pressing a button on the right side.

When I finished reloading, I noticed Marie had stood up, assuming an upright posture with her rifle resting on her shoulder. The recoil from these powerful weapons was intense, sometimes pushing shooters back almost 8 inches. That's why a specific stance had been developed to absorb the impact.

What Marie was doing compromised her safety for better aim. I quickly ran toward her, knowing she would be thrown back. She waited for the right moment, bodies flying, the Jumper emitting its hellish roar. Now its silhouette was easier to see, its entire body stained with the blood of its dismembered victims.

I was getting close to Marie, no more than 16 feet away, when she fired. Her weapon launched a different projectile, one so fast that the air twisted, causing a chain reaction of multiple sonic booms. Marie was thrown back faster than I was running toward her. I felt the pain of her body's impact on mine, but without hesitation, I caught her in mid-air. We both were thrown back, landing several feet behind. She was moaning in pain, clutching her shoulder.

But her attack was successful. Amid the combat frenzy, the shot was too unexpected and precise for the creature to react. The ammunition hit its core, exploding in an orange and blue cloud, throwing it several yards back. Cheers of elevated morale began to emanate from my comrades; it was the imminence of victory, the opportunity everyone wanted.

At least 30% of the force had been torn apart by the Jumper by this point. Those who remained gambled everything and launched a wave of attack.

"Fire at will!" declared Maxwell, his voice resonating through the megaphone.

Suddenly, the firing stopped. For a moment, I couldn't understand why. But the feeling returned; my body became immobile, paralyzed by fear, by terror. With Marie in my arms, both of us still on the ground, my gaze slowly turned to the gate. Its veil was static again.

Then a shadow leapt from the heights. From where I was, it looked like a sphere with tentacles flying through the air. A distortion followed, causing a warp in space, and then the figure disappeared.

I quickly stood up, pulling Marie with me. We both looked at the center. Bodies were flying, all aflame.

A dance of tentacles and flying bodies.

A shrill and deep grunt echoed simultaneously.

It was another Jumper, slightly larger than the previous one, but clearly, it was another Jumper.