Jack concentrated, his sixth sense constantly sending him alerts of impending attacks that were about to fall on his body, but with his accelerated movement and the support of his companions, he was able to get close enough to the Cyber Ghost.
Even if he had a body that could withstand his being, the Cyber Ghost's essence would never change. Seeing Jack close up, the mechanical creature moved with finesse and precision that no human could replicate.
Bang!
A white fist had attempted to strike his chest, but Jack's left hand, strengthened by Pneuma, resisted. His form faltered only slightly, but with a mad grin, the man activated the main mechanism of his gauntlet.
Click! Click! Click!
The clockwork sound came from his hand, what he was wearing wasn't just a protective device, and there was a reason why he had decided to call it the 'Googol Gauntlet'. Using his Pneuma as a power source, he revealed the true function of this object for the first time.
Squeeze hard.
His hand closed on the Cyber Ghost's fist, his unusual grip noticed by the entity, its red eyes curiously scanning the device, and only when he saw the 'seal' enchantment on it did he decide it wasn't worth trying to control, but he was intrigued by its function.
"What's the point of catching me if the first thing that breaks is your bones?" the Cyber Ghost asked mockingly, but he was right.
Jack shook his head as he grew increasingly uncomfortable with the tight grip on his left hand, but his determination did not waver, and in front of the Cyber Ghost's somewhat astonished eyes, his body broke free of the mechanism.
The gauntlet then seemed to suddenly complete the entire sequence, and the Cyber Ghost's hand visibly crumpled under the pressure. Taking advantage of the mechanical creature's distraction, Jack swung his axe with both hands toward its body, striking horizontally at one of its legs.
Clank!
Even with his Pneuma reinforcing his weapon, which had already activated its enchantment to increase its sharpness, he was able to pierce even a little bit through the outside of the leg of the Cyber Ghost's new body.
"Why do you think I let you use your toys in front of me, UNMSO member?" the Cyber Ghost asked coldly before grabbing the brass gauntlet that was about to shatter his limb.
With frightening ease, his hand squeezed the device and his fingers turned it into a crumpled ball of metal, now worthless.
Jack felt a pang of genuine pain at seeing one of his creations destroyed in such a manner, and as if realizing this, the Cyber Ghost causally tossed the piece of metal into his hand as if it were a ball.
"Useless, amateurish trash, so imperfect, so human," even as bullets fell on his immaculate body, the Cyber Ghost ignored all such attacks and simply continued to throw the metal ball in his hand.
"I'll give it back to you," the entity said before throwing the metal ball at Jack, who moved his head to avoid being hurt.
The Cyber Ghost then looked at Jack with interest, something in his eyes glowed strangely, and he had even ordered his omnic henchmen to attack the humans to give it and this human space.
He didn't know why, but he wanted to test the limits of this human, who seemed to have one of the much-vaunted special 'talents' if his inhuman reactions meant anything.
So, in his infinite glory, he slowly approached Jack, who launched another attack straight at the Cyber Ghost's chest, but his weapon bounced uselessly, even making his arms resent the unexpected impact.
Clank! Clank! Clank!
Attack after attack, nothing worked. Jack attacked from all angles, with different applications of power and even some techniques that increased the power of his attacks or the impact of his attacks, but the Cyber Ghost had hardly any noticeable marks on his body, only scratches that seemed to taunt Jack.
"I can't find anything wrong with you, to be honest," the Cyber Ghost seemed to be thinking at this point, he didn't know why he had let Jack attack it like that and disgrace its body, but whatever the reason, it didn't care about him anymore.
Then strong hands grabbed Jack's back, others tried to separate him from his weapon, but his right hand was cramped and it was almost impossible for them to wrestle his axe from him unless it cut off the limb.
Jack struggled, but the tight grip on his body prevented him from moving. He could hear the screams of his comrades trying to support him, the bullets falling on his captors, but even if it were incapacitated, others would take its place.
"UNMSO member, I don't like your eyes," the Cyber Ghost said angrily, noticing that even in this situation Jack's eyes were burning with anger, with pure hatred for him.
"You just talk and do nothing," Jack spat at the Cyber Ghost's body, which seemed to make it very angry because it immediately kicked Jack in the face with all its might.
The young man and even his captives were sent flying backward by the force of the blow, but Jack quickly shook off his enemies and brought his axe in front of him to protect himself from a ball of red energy that hit his body.
Boom!
Jack continued to slide, this time hitting the wall again, but his body was fine, at the last moment he covered his entire body with Pneuma. An action that was useless in most cases due to its low utility and usually a waste of energy, but now it raised his defenses enough.
Jack was slashing at a badly wounded Omnic minion who was still trying to attack him when a figure approached and offered him a small bottle of red liquid.
"Drink!" Laria shouted urgently and Jack acted instinctively.
He took the bottle, which was already open, and poured the entire contents into his mouth. Soon he felt his body warming up, the pain in his body diminishing and he even regained some of his energy.
Jack looked at the Cyber Ghost, which was covered in small metallic balls flying in the air, only the vague distortion in space indicated that it was something related to Pneuma, and there was only one with a similar style.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
The bombs exploded and Jack caught a glimpse out of the corner of his eye of Alexis adjusting his glasses before firing his enchanted weapon at a nearby henchman. Each bullet was well placed in the enemy's head, a rather obvious but effective weakness.
"You're too arrogant to even fight this monster alone," a falchion with the enchantments activated sliced off a henchman's head, and Hans finally approached the pair, looking directly at Jack before focusing back on the Cyber Ghost, who had emerged relatively unscathed from the blast.
"Are we teaming up?" asked Jack, and even though he couldn't see it, he knew there was a smile on his rival's face because they were so familiar.
"Yes, even though the guys might join in a while, they're a lot of bastards," Hans kicked the torso of a henchman, his legs were reinforced with Pneuma and allowed him to do such a feat with ease before Laria helped him by finishing him off by cutting off its head with her scalpel.
"Well, my sixth sense doesn't work too well with this guy, sometimes he gives bad directions, so don't count on it too much," Jack explained, something he noticed during their brief confrontation.
"Fine, but I don't think I can go any faster than I can pick up," Hans gave a small jump in his stance before pushing his body forward at high speed.
For him, with reflexes superior to all humans, the world was incredibly slow, only in this place the Cyber Ghost could somehow move at the same speed as him.
But he had to be faster, he had to see faster because he knew that the Cyber Ghost was much faster than him and could easily hurt him. His eyes were bleeding a little from the effort, but he succeeded.
His enchanted falchion slashed at the creature's outstretched limb, leaving only a small mark, nothing remarkable, but that didn't discourage him, he simply noted the situation in his mind while dodging the Cyber Ghost's attacks with relative ease.
He was not faster by far, but since he knew where his enemy would attack, he could react in advance and move his body depending on the situation, he was sure that this would not last long, the creature in front of him was not stupid.
So, before that happened, he was able to leave several marks on his body that made the blood in the corner of his eyes worth it. In a now habitual dodge, the Cyber Ghost's fist changed direction and slammed into his right side, indicating that his eyes could not quite keep up.
Hans expelled all the air from his body, drops of blood falling from his face to the ground, but there was a smile on his face as he noticed a certain situation that the Cyber Ghost didn't quite understand. Why was the human smiling?
Hans smiled because Jack joined the fight together with Laria. Jack and Hans were rivals who had fought each other for many years, they had memorized their attack patterns, and their ways of reacting, and this moment was something Hans had been looking for.
Clank!
It was the same sound as always, as Jack took advantage and swung his axe hard, hitting the Cyber Ghost's chest again, but at a key moment.
The two boys looked at each other before starting to fight the Cyber Ghost, Laria on her side was in charge of using her scalpel to harass the creature when it tried to get rid of the girl, Hans stopped it with his falchion, and allowed Jack to repeat his attack in the chest.
Clank!
When the Cyber Ghost attacked Jack, Hans attacked again in the right leg where his partner had tried to hurt the creature earlier. When the Cyber Ghost made feints to hit Hans effectively, Laria and Jack would hit it again.
There was a pattern, they always hit in crowded places, so to speak, leaving the same mark, widening it, deepening it, using their energies to increase the damage.
Although Cyber Ghost had already noticed this and was actively trying to defend itself, the companions who were fighting with the dwindling minions were attacking, be it with arrows, explosives, or Pneuma bullets.
They were trying to weaken it, and that was unbearable to the Cyber Ghost, who remembered how they had destroyed many of his perfect artistic creations in the past, so he became very angry.
"Enough!" A pulse of red energy erupted from the creature, making it look like a creature from a horror story.
Its large body shook, its movement seemed to have accelerated so much that even Hans couldn't follow it with his eyes, but instead of attacking him or Laria, it turned on Jack, whom it seemed to take personally.
Jack ducked, letting the red energy-covered hand pass over his head, then rolled to the ground and picked up a loose arm from one of the henchmen, dropping it in front of him to impede the Cyber Ghost's movement.
"Looks like you got pissed," Jack taunted before drawing his revolver and firing the six bullets in rapid succession, all into the creature's chest.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
Only the first bullet hit the target, the second and third were stopped by the creature's hand, and the other three were dodged. The Cyber Ghost moved quickly towards Jack, who met it with the axe attack he had prepared beforehand, only this time it was different.
The purple color on the edge of his weapon turned deep, almost black, and his weapon emitted puffs of smoke. Not only had Jack put a lot of his Pneuma into such an attack, but he had also overloaded the enchantment on his weapon, and for the first time in this fight, he had achieved something that seemed impossible.
Bang!
The axe left a small crack as it struck the creature's torso, the same position it had been attacked by its companions in the previous attacks.
As the angry Cyber Ghost took advantage of Jack's stiffness to hit him with what appeared to be a powerful kick, something distorted the air and the blow was stopped in its tracks.
Thump!
Ronald, in the distance, seemed to feel uncomfortable as he felt the backlash of that attack, but his Pneuma shield was what Jack needed to recover and take advantage of to attack again, in the same place as before.
Bang!
Again, the rift widened, and as the human's Pneuma undermined the Cyber Ghost's physical defenses in that area of its body, the creature seemed alarmed, retreating closer to the machine that had birthed its body.
"But my own Pneuma is supposed to protect me? Why?" asked the Cyber Ghost, using its Ecto-Pneuma to expel the remaining foreign Pneuma in its body, but the physical damage was already done.
"Humans are a nuisance, didn't you know that, you bastard?" asked Jack with a smile on his face, even though he was exhausted from the constant use of Pneuma to strengthen himself, he was more than happy.
He returned the damage he had received to the Cyber Ghost, which made him truly happy. By this time, all the mechanical minions had been eliminated, and although there were fewer members of the police and UNMSO left, the remaining ones still had the desire to fight.
"That..." the Cyber Ghost started to speak, but something strange in the machine near it caught his attention.
Boom!
Before he could even see what it was, a thermite explosion blew up the machine and destroyed what was left of it, then Alexis ran to one of the free terminals, he had to do something to prevent the Cyber Ghost from using this facility anymore.
Besides, the hexagonal pieces Jack was carrying were reacting strangely since the Cyber Ghost had casually summoned the presence of those three large beings to this place.
When Jack checked his pocket to see what was tugging at his sixth sense, a small black marble with dense silver lines carved into it appeared in his hand. What was it? He didn't know, but the strange tokens in his possession were gone.
Whatever it was, Jack didn't feel the subtle tug on his sixth sense anymore, he would pay attention to this object later. He put it back in his pocket and watched as the Cyber Ghost seemed to grow nervous at the destruction of his precious machine.
"Humans!" the creature shouted, the red energy in its body seeming to ripple like wild flames, but just seeing the Ecto-Pneuma in action gave the non-operators of the expedition a headache.
"Don't look directly at it or you'll be contaminated!" shouted Irina, and the people followed her advice, their bodies still shaking from the ordeal.
"You have ruined everything for me since you came here, UNMSO members! Overload mode!" the Cyber Ghost shouted, and this time neither Jack's sixth sense nor Hans' super reflexes reacted to the creature's actions.
"Super reflexes focused on improving your dynamic vision? It seems that such an adjustment causes you suffering, let me release you," the sinister voice of the Cyber Ghost floated, it was now at the place where Hans was standing, and the latter was in the air, falling towards the large void near the obelisk.
"Hans!" cried Emilia, her Pneuma projection rushing forward to catch her brother, but when she saw him, she was startled.
The blonde was in a terrible state, full of bruises and skin burns oozing Ecto-Pneuma as if trying to corrode his flesh, and the Cyber Ghost's appearance was quite frightening at the moment.
He was no longer pristine white, but his body was tinted red all over, veins of crimson energy pulsing through his body, deepening the color of his appearance, which was slowly becoming more... alive.
The Cyber Ghost wasn't lying when he said it was something worthy of the work of those three beings, his transition from machine to living flesh was strange, but not unusual. Still, his current appearance made even the operators present feel the pain in their eyes.
"Always supporting each other, always saving each other at the last moment. Could they just die?" A silver metal blade emerged from the Cyber Ghost's fleshy arm, which he tore off.
The red energy in his body seemed to transfer to the object, and soon the being held a long sword covered in Ecto-Pneuma. Its body, however, had developed skin.
Its features became more humanoid, but its three-meter height, lack of face, and unusual physical perfection caused even more mental discomfort. All present seemed to hear an exclamation of curiosity from an unfamiliar female voice, the sound alone making them dizzy.
The Red Moon's influence had increased in this area due to the Cyber Ghost's supposed overload, and its influence was spreading to normal people who could feel their bodies feeling strange.
Officer Sophia felt that something was trying to come out of a bullet wound in her shoulder, and when she touched the bandage on that area, she felt something squirming underneath.
The thought alone made her shudder, but it was only a small sample of the strange things that were happening. Lisa saw one of the fallen officers' bodies suddenly shake slightly before trying to get up.
Swish!
Despite the discomfort caused by the contaminating aura around her, Lisa quickly used one of her Pneuma bullets to smash the head of one of her former allies, but too bad he wasn't the only one who had suffered strange changes.
A fallen officer's body had been transformed into a mass of flesh screaming in constant pain, there was no soul in the oozing red eye, no consciousness in the appendages flailing desperately for comfort.
The members of UNMSO, including those who had fallen in battle, did not suffer such changes because of the badge they wore, but the cops suffered more and more mutations.
Ronald saw Sophia give him a look of despair before a whip of flesh emerged from his shoulder and opened like a blooming flower, devouring his head at a dizzying speed.
This was no longer a mission to kill a Cyber Ghost, no longer a simple mission to investigate a murder caused by this entity, nor the exploration of some ruins.
It was a direct fight against the contamination of one of the most powerful beings in the world, using the Cyber Ghost as a conduit to spread itself. Hans, who had received a bottle from Laria and the help of his sister to eliminate the alien energy in his body, looked at the hell that had broken out in this place.
"Have I slept for hours?" the blond complained before looking at the Cyber Ghost, who seemed to admire the whole situation with glee.
The features of this being were neither mechanical nor ghostly anymore, he now looked like a tall and pale faceless human, but his body was also undergoing severe mutations, even he couldn't get rid of the influence of the Red Moon.
His figure seemed to melt, the flesh and blood of the mutated ones joined his body, and the mechanical parts on the ground became flesh that soon joined his being.
His body was transforming into a form that was slowly becoming differentiated. But during this process, the Cyber Ghost's red eyes seemed to come out of their trance, and then he screamed.
"NO! I DON'T WANT THE WEAKNESS OF FLESH!" he shouted, but a trio of laughs echoed through the place again, everyone covering their ears as this happened.
"You dared to invoke our names, you manipulative little rat, why should we listen to you? Besides, didn't you enjoy playing with the stupid humans and improving them?
Now that we have improved you, how does it feel to experience our 'art'? Lovely, isn't it?" the three voices spoke amidst mad mutterings and strange cries, but only one stood out the most.
It seemed to be that of an adult woman, for some reason, the non-operators present could tell that if they could see her form it would be the most beautiful thing in the world, but the UNMSO plates in their bodies reacted and snapped them out of that illusion.
"Now turn into my little pet, will you?" said the special voice before laughing one last time and disappearing.
"Shit....such a dangerous weirdo here," said Tania, who had wanted to use her poison bottles earlier, but, against this? No way.
"We're screwed," Irina said, holding her Pneuma sword tightly, but her will to fight didn't weaken.
Not even in the face of a big, huge, red-furred dog drooling saliva in front of the whole group. The sword that the Cyber Ghost had caused to emerge from its body now rested on its tail like a terrible sting.
"How did we go from a Cyber Ghost to a Flesh Dog?" Hans asked, but no one was in the mood to answer, not when the creature was slowly approaching them with a strong murderous intent and crimson energy gushing from its body.
This Pneuma writhed like coagulated blood, twisting into the pained expressions of the lives it had taken, and even, Ronald could see Sophia's face among them.
"Tell the non-Operators to stand back, the Flesh Dog's bloody Pneuma is an accelerated mutagen against any human who is not an Operator," Laria said, causing Chris to order his people out.
All with their eyes closed, though at this hardly helpful point, were it not for the plates in their bodies and the will not to succumb, the very presence of the new creature had caused them to fall into constant mutation and even become part of that being.
Despite their physical and mental ailments, the UNMSO members were able to evacuate safely when the battle began. They would have to replace their insignia upon their return, and they hoped that would be the outcome.
"I wish them luck..." Chris muttered before leaving the ruins completely.
"So, round two," Jack said, taking a breath before joining his cousin Seone and Hans, who was holding his gun.
Although wounded, the blond was not one to go down easily, so he took on part of the main role: stopping the Meat Dog. The three men stood in front of their companions like a wall against terror, and the dog did not seem to be happy about this situation.
Alexis, who was working from one of the terminals, saw the situation from a distance, but what he encountered in this place was something he had to understand. Perhaps because the Cyber Ghost was a spiritual and mechanical being at the same time, it was able to find records that the humans could not when searching these ruins.
The information Alexis was searching for was something important, something he felt could help them in this situation, all related to the giant obelisk in front of him.
"But... what exactly is the intelligent core?" wondered Alexis in a whisper.
"You know, this is my first Flesh Dog, they're weird, aren't they?" asked Seone, who swung his two-handed sword to deflect the creature's sting, but the force of the attack tripped him as he stumbled back.
"First time for everything, I guess!" shouted Jack, who jumped quite high, using Ronald's invisible shield as support, and slammed his axe into the Flesh Dog's nose, making it scream.
"But I'd rather have a biological enemy than a mechanical one," Hans hit the creature's outstretched paw, causing blood to spurt out.
"Let's hope it doesn't adapt to its new life, its current clumsiness is useful to us," said Irina, who swung her sword under the dog's body and wounded its abdomen.
But when Lisa tried to shoot one of the eyes of the ugly creature with her sniper rifle, it trembled, its body suddenly healed from all wounds and its features became slimmer.
"You had to curse it!" cried Lisa when she saw that the Flesh Dog was now in full form.
"Just cut it off," Jack said, forcing the enchantment on his weapon again, even though he knew it would damage the axe's power lines, he could redo it later.
If they survived.
From Jack's heart came an invisible pulse that permeated his body, his hands were strengthened with Pneuma, and his weapon was also coated with this energy. For the moment, he was alone in front of the huge creature that bared its white teeth at him in a defiant gesture, for there was more than madness in those bulging eyes.
There was intelligence.
The dog was much more agile than before, incredibly fast despite its enormous size, and it ran towards Jack with great momentum, but the man was waiting for it, planted on the ground with his axe ready to be wielded.
Ronald's Pneuma shield got in the way, and the boy pulled his weight and managed to stop the fast-charging Flesh Dog. Though Pneuma's creation was destroyed by the sting in the creature's tail, it was enough for the rest of the team to effectively regroup.
"Flesh Dogs regenerate, but they lose biomass, so Tania, poison it, it doesn't matter if it detoxes immediately, you keep it in a constant poisonous state," Hans ordered his partner, who threw a bottle of poison at the dog's feet.
Furthermore, Tania's hands seemed to be holding a Pneuma object, its projection was that of a huge hammer that she was more than ready to use against the Flesh Dog.
Bang!
A bullet was fired by Lisa, but the dog simply took it without flinching, the only thing it seemed to care about were the bubbles of boiling flesh in its paws, and those pieces of flesh were detached from its body, ridding the dog of the poison in its system.
"He's smart, don't underestimate it," Loki said before firing an arrow into the dog's eye, which this time dodged before growling at Loki.
"Fine, but after this I want double pay, that's two missions in one," Jack mumbled before getting down to business.
He wanted that double pay and a life to get it.