The forest's eerie silence didn't last long. As the team pushed forward, a chorus of snarls, screeches, and guttural roars echoed through the dense foliage. Zane's device was going haywire, its screen flashing with a chaotic array of red blips.
Ken glanced over his shoulder. "Zane, can you make that thing shut up? It's like ringing a dinner bell!"
"Not my fault the forest is hosting a monster family reunion!" Zane snapped, tapping furiously at the device.
Akamatsu suddenly froze. "Incoming. Four o'clock."
The team spun around just in time to see a trio of bizarre creatures emerge. One was a grotesque, insectoid hybrid with razor-sharp pincers and glowing, pulsating wings. Another looked like a bipedal gorilla with molten cracks running down its obsidian-like body. The third was the smallest but arguably the creepiest: a spindly, humanoid figure with dozens of glowing eyes spread across its face and chest.
"Alright, which one of you ordered nightmare fuel?" Ken quipped, cracking his knuckles.
The insectoid shrieked and launched itself into the air, spraying a toxic green mist.
"Dibs on the bug!" Anji yelled, her hands glowing as she conjured twin orbs of chaos energy. She hurled them upward, missing the creature by a hair.
"Are you even aiming?!" Elena shouted, already firing precise shots into the air.
"I'm aiming for style points!"
Meanwhile, the molten gorilla pounded its chest and charged toward Simon, who had barely shifted into his reptilian form. "Why is it always me?" Simon groaned, bracing himself as the creature collided with him like a freight train.
Akamatsu stepped forward, calmly deflecting the green mist with a flick of his wrist. "Elena, suppress the bug. Zane, keep building whatever insanity you have in mind. Ken, you're with me."
Ken grinned. "Finally, some action!" He dashed toward the spindly humanoid, which began elongating its limbs like a demented spider.
"You are way too creepy," Ken said, ducking under a whip-like arm and delivering a powerful kick to the creature's chest. It recoiled, letting out a high-pitched wail that made everyone wince.
"Ken, stop making it scream!" Elena shouted, blasting at the insectoid again.
"Stop telling me what to do!"
While the others battled, Zane was frantically working on his cannon. "Okay, this time I've added lasers, frost beams, and—wait for it—a coffee dispenser. Priorities, people."
Anji ducked under a spray of toxic mist. "Zane, if you don't fire that thing in the next ten seconds, I'm throwing you into the bug's mouth."
"Relax, it's almost done!" Zane yelled, twisting a knob. The cannon emitted a loud hum before sparking ominously. "Uh... Maybe take cover."
"TAKE WHAT?!" the team shouted in unison.
The cannon fired, emitting a chaotic burst of energy that ricocheted wildly off the trees, narrowly missing everyone—and everything.
"You almost hit me!" Ken roared.
"It was a warning shot!"
With a deafening roar, the gorilla monster was the first to fall, courtesy of Simon's relentless claw strikes and a well-timed energy blast from Anji. The insectoid followed suit after Elena nailed its wing with a perfect shot, sending it crashing to the ground.
The spindly humanoid, however, began to multiply, smaller clones emerging from its body.
"Great," Ken muttered, punching another clone into dust. "Now it's bringing friends."
"Zane!" Elena shouted.
"On it!" Zane fired his cannon again, this time hitting the original humanoid square in its glowing eyes. It exploded in a burst of light, taking the clones with it.
As silence returned, the team slumped to the ground.
"Okay," Simon panted, "next time, let's just run."
"No way," Ken said, leaning against a tree. "I was just getting warmed up."
Akamatsu dusted off his jacket. "If you two are done bickering, we need to move. There's more coming."