I just kind of stared at Evelyn’s bear casually walking through the o of antithesis, as it waddled through our defensive lines, and stepped over to me. Bob had just pletely ignored anything smaller than a Model Twelve on his walk over, including a Model Four that had gotten snagged on his left arm, and which was repeatedly stabbing him iively in the face.

  “You got a little something, just there,” I said, pointing at the rogue antithesis.

  He stared at the thing for a moment, then casually brushed the Four off his arm like it was just a fly. “Thanks Squiddy!”

  “Don’t call me that,” I mumbled as I ied the Model Four with one of my prehensile sers. “You know the pn?”

  “Nope! Boss just said to e back you up,” the bear replied cheerfully as he rocked bad forth on his heels.

  “Well… You see that pilr over there?” I said, gesturing to the hive. “We’re going to push our way over there and take it down.”

  Bob turned slightly, looked at the wave of antithesis between us and the pilr, and cracked his knuckles. “Sounds good! Follow me!” he said, slowly heading towards the pilr.

  “Don’t you want any more information? Shouldn’t we pn this out first?” I asked, pushing my suit into a slow jog so I could keep up.

  “Will your pn involve more than me pung things?” Bob asked iurn, gng at me over his shoulder.

  “Maybe…”

  “Then no thanks. You pn, I punch!” he replied as he once again reached our defensive line. He slipped betweeable and Grey, somehow squeakiween their attacks, only to cave in the head of a Model Twelve that had mao get close. “e on! Time to go!” he called, turning and waving in my dire.

  Unfortunately for the bear, that’s when a Twe charged forward. One of its rge tusks scraped along his bad then caught him uhe shoulder. I watched in shock as the monstrous creature thrashed about, trying to spear, or dislodge the bear. “Little help?” he asked calmly.

  Thankfully, Whisperer had been using the time and excess biomass avaible sihe fight began to grow her third creature, the elephantine juggernaut. The gigantic creature casually reached over and plucked Bob off the Twe, just before Psmanx disied it, along with the surrounding antithesis.

  “Pay attention!” Whisperer snapped from her elephant’s back. “Onove away from our lihe swarm will be too thick for us to provide any real support. If you get in trouble again, you’re on your own.”

  Bob just saluted. As soon as his feet touched the ground, he turned and looked at me again. “Ready to go?”

  I noticed that Grey gave me a strange look as I stepped past, it felt like she was judging me a bit. “Don’t bme me, he’s Teddy’s creation,” I muttered, as if to justify myself.

  Once I was beyond our lines, I sed the tentacles from targeted to free-fire mode. I wasn’t pnning on ripping apart any rge antithesis. Bob could do that. I o clear enough of the chaff to not get bogged down.

  My tentacles instantly went to work, iing everything at mid-rah the multi-focal sers, while anything that mao get close received the sharp end of the vibro-bdes.

  “This is much easier!” Bob decred, as my sers disied the antithesis at his feet.

  “Well, maybe you shouldn’t just focus on the rge models, and deal with the smaller stuff occasionally,” I s him.

  “It’s less effit! And I do deal with them, eventually!” he shot back, lifting one of his feet to show the yer of antithesis gunk absolutely coating his legs.

  “I ’t believe we’re having this discussion while being besieged by thousands of antithesis,” I grumbled. “How about we trate oing to that hive and pleting our mission without getting killed?”

  All around us, the antithesis were pushing in. The smaller models weren’t making progress against my sers, but occasionally a Model Twelve, or Fourteen, would push forward and take ground. One particurly tough Fourteen mao absorb my attacks a close enough to strike at me, only for Bob to bad the monster away.

  “You’re right! We have a job to do!” Bob decred. He didn’t aowledge what he’d done, just turned and started wading through the ranks again.

  Progress was slow. Even though most smaller models couldn’t reach us through my sers, and the ohat could didn’t have the strength to damage either of us, Bob o stop every few feet to smash one of the rger models. Although he dispatched Twelves and Fourteens with almost casual disi, he had to trate for the Twenties. He typically o take a blow from a Twenty-Oo get a bead on their location, then ter punch. The Twenty-Threes and Twes couldn’t put him down, but I noticed he actually o trate when fighting them, dodging around to find an opening before delivering his blow.

  Even though the pilr was only a couple hundred meters away, it took more than ten mio reach the hive.

  Bob stopped just short of the gigantic structure. A dozeers across, upon closer iion, it looked more like a ton of interwoven vihan a siructure. Dozens of half-formed antithesis fell from the pods, released by the headless four-armed antithesis tender models, in a st-ditch effort to stop us.

  “Now… what are we doing here again?” Bob asked.

  “We o take it down to earn aoken, so the team upgrade,” I expio the bear. “I just o figure out how to do it…”

  Bob shrugged, turned back towards the tree, and smashed it as hard as he could. There was a horrible sound, like a bination of ripping vines and screeg metal as he embedded his arm up to the shoulder in the hive. Whehdrew his hand, I could see the gau and hand were severely bent by the impact. As I stared at the damage I could see microscopic repairs going on, but it would take him quite some time to recover. sidering the damage, whatever was in that hive had to be signifitly harder than the model Twenty-Threes.

  “I’m out of ideas,” Bob admitted.

  “Just watch my back. I’ll figure something out,” I said, pushing forward to check the hole he mao make. The tree fibers were woven tightly together to create a sort of protective outer yer, like carbon fiber, but deep inside I could see fast-flowing fluids. Possibly nutrient delivery systems?

  “Aeonys, I need something to kill this tree. Suggestions?” I asked my AI.

  [Although a flesh melter may work, I’d be ed that the Hive may try te the nanites before they plete the job. I reend weakening it first.] Aeonys’ voice echoed out of my suit’s speakers.

  “Sooo… explosives?”

  [Yes, explosives]

  “Fine, give me something big enough to disrupt the system, and a nanite chaser.”

  Purchased

  AMD 160 Shaped Charge - 20 Points

  Flesh melter grenade x 5 - 15 Points

  Points Remaining: 55,432

  [You know, you should probably start sidering some purchases,] Aeonys said as I grabbed the two packages at my feet. [If that Forty hatches, yoing to want every advantage you get.]

  “Not that I disagree, but we discuss this whe back behind our own lines? I’m kind of dealing with something here,” I said, shoving the bomb and the rest of my arm deep into the hive to pnt it. It took me a few seds to find something to hook it on, but as soon as I did, I shuffled back. “Bob, time to go!” I yelled, pushing the oversized teddy bear.

  “Go where?” he asked, as he caved-in the head of another Model Twelve.

  “Away! The bomb’s been pnted. We o get out of the bst zone!” I replied, trying to pull him away from where he was standing.

  Instead of following, Bob just pced himself directly between my armor and the tree. “What are you doing?” I hissed.

  “Damage trol!” he replied. With only seds left oimer, I left him, and tried to waddle further away. I didn’t get far before an explosioated the hive, sending razor-sharp wood shards in every dire. When I turned back, the etom of the hive was gone. Nutrient liquid raying everywhere, and the top was creaking, straining us ow.

  Bob was standing there, between me and the tree, with wood splinters embedded up and down the front of him. “See; damage trol! You didn’t get a single splinter in you!” he decred. As I watched, some of the rgest splinters, including the one in his eye, slowly pushed out of his body ao the ground.

  “That wasn’t necessary! My suit almost take as much damage as you , I just wao get to a safe distao minimize damage!” I shouted.

  “Oh. Well. No big loss,” he replied with a smile. ”Are we done here?”

  “Not yet. We just o melt out the rest of it,” I said with a sigh. “You want to throw these?” I asked, passing him the grenades.

  “Do I ever!” Bob said with a smile. He carefully took the grenades out of my hands, stepped directly below what remained of the hive, and started chug them up.

  “Your casual indifference for your own safety is kind htening,” I said as I watched him.

  “It’s part of my charm!” he replied.

  Ohe st grenade had been thrown, the rest of the hive began to break down, sh us in debris. “Now we’re done!” I decred, shielding my head out of instinct. “Now, quick, back to our lines!”

  “ do!” Bob just sauntered past me, and started walking back towards the other samurai. I thought I’d have to rush to catch up again, but he stopped after a couple steps, staring back towards the caverrance. “Say…” he said, “Did the boss’s base always look like that?”