The chamber beyond the door wasn’t a room in the traditional sense. It was a compromise.

  The best Kade could guess, the room was supposed to appear as if the smugglers had found a natural grotto and decided it wasn't quite enough, so they'd carved it into something half-functional. Rough stone met rusted reinforcement in uneven seams, patched with salvage where it looked like the ceiling had tried to collapse more than once. Steam pipes ran low along the walls, dripping condensation and groaning under pressure. Heavy copper cables disappeared into the rock overhead, humming faintly. The floor was uneven, slick with a shallow coat of oil and water that sucked at their boots when they moved.

  Half-melted safety signage hung crookedly over the nearest panel. The pictogram warned about electrical hazards, though the wires had clearly won that fight. Blue-white sparks arced across the exposed conduit, throwing stuttering shadows across the group like lightning in miniature. They popped at a steady rhythm.

  The air smelled of burned plastic and old chemicals. What looked to be a generator sat in the back of the room, bolted to a raised platform. Belts jumped onto misaligned flywheels. Thick lubricant leaked from the seams and collected in shallow pools around the base. The fluid looked part oil and part tar, black and slow-moving, with smoke starting to rise off the surface.

  Directly in front of the generator stood the boss. It hadn’t moved much since they first laid eyes on it. Seven feet of tar packed into a vaguely human shape, standing just at the edge of the light. Limbs hung too long, ropes of sludge dripping from its arms and pooling in smoking patches across the floor. Its surface shifted constantly, like the whole thing was just waiting for an excuse to fall apart and reassemble in a worse configuration.

  Kade’s gut clenched. Not fear exactly but that silent alarm in the spine that came from seeing something fundamentally wrong. The uncanny valley effect. It looked humanoid but just slightly off enough to be wrong.

  "Eyes up," she said. "That’s our target."

  Briggs stood just behind Kade, axe loose and ready. Lance and Milo held near the front, shields raised but not yet moving. Lance was steady in a way that usually came before something reckless. Milo shifted on his feet as if he had energy to burn and no safe outlet for it.

  Stone crouched at the rear with her spellbook open across one knee. Her fingers hovered above the page without shaking. Mercer had taken a position off to the right, half-shadowed behind a wall brace as she checked her angles. Robin stayed close to Kade's left, revolver in hand, grip relaxed but focused. She didn’t blink.

  Colt stood a few feet away from the group, jaw set, hands twitching like he wanted to argue with someone. Myers kept low beside the frame, one eye on the tar horror, the other on the room. He didn’t cross the threshold. Levi waited further back, quiet and still, watching everything as if he were just here to take notes.

  "Lance, Milo. You are lead," Kade said. "Briggs, take the brawlers and stack behind them. Myers peel off as soon as Milo and Lance have its attention. Mercer, take upper left and call your shots."

  Robin glanced over. "And us?"

  Kade nodded once. "We start with pistols to let everyone establish, then we drop into the cut."

  Mercer spoke from position by the door brace. "Two large tubes marked as emergency extinguishers on the walls. One on the left, the other on the right. Old labels still readable."

  "Fire hazard," Myers said. "Big ugly’s probably flammable like the regular ones we saw earlier. Try not to light it up unless we want to reenact Colt’s last greatest hit."

  "Hey," Colt grunted, "that was an honest mistake."

  "Sure," Kade said. "Let’s maybe learn from that lesson though, maybe?"

  Colt’s eyes narrowed, but managed a small smile. "I’m just waiting for the part where you start handing out votes on how we do things."

  "Don’t tempt me," Kade said. "You’d lose yours in the recount."

  A flicker of genuine amusement crossed Briggs’ face. He didn’t laugh, but it was close.

  Kade turned to Levi, who stood three feet off from everyone else and still managed to look like he wanted to measure the room instead of survive it.

  "You planning on throwing equations at it?" she asked dryly. "If heroics aren’t on the menu, stay out of the splash zone."

  Levi blinked. Shrugged.

  “Just figuring out how fast it liquefies bone,” he said, like it was a weather report.

  Kade stared at him a beat longer than necessary. Then turned.

  "Alright," she said. "Stack tight, move slow, wait for my mark. This thing doesn’t get to pick the tempo."

  [Analyze] The Oozing Lantern | Level: 15 Boss | Status: Hostile | Class: Abomination

  The Oozing Lantern twitched. The oily film beneath it rippled, pushed outward by something shifting beneath the surface tension. A piece of its arm drooped, peeled off like unbaked dough, then slurped back into its torso as it closed the distance.

  Kade lifted her cutlass, thumb flicking the pistol hammer open on her offhand. She could feel the oil-slick stone under her soles, the vibration of the generator behind her, the sound of those arcs still snapping over the room like the heartbeat of a machine trying not to die.

  Steeling herself, she lifted her voice above the sound of steam and oil and cracked electricity.

  "Now."

  And the squad surged forward.

  Lance and Milo crossed the threshold first, shields angled, feet deliberate. They didn’t charge ahead as if it were a race. Instead, they advanced like a highly trained military unit who knew what came next could tear straight through steel. The cataclysm may have changed how war was going to be fought overall, but the basics of entering and clearing a room of enemy combatants would always stay the same.

  The generator groaned behind the monster. It clanked once, then twice, then bucked hard enough to shake the wall. A jet of oil burst from a pressure vent near its base, spraying across the floor in a long arc that splattered across tile and pooled just off the center of the room. The fluid was thick and dark, creeping as it spread.

  The tar horror shifted toward the pool. Each step churned the oil on the floor beneath it as globs of black mass folded up into its chest and limbs. Its body swelled, subtle at first, then more obvious as the pool disappeared.

  It absorbed what it touched.

  Briggs kept pace a step behind Lance, with Colt mirroring him on the right. Both kept low and wide, flanking the tanks without comment. Kade caught the twitch in Colt’s grip. The man was barely holding himself in check.

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  Myers disappeared into the corner shadows, boots making no sound as he crossed a patch of loose piping.

  The horror reached Lance first. Its arm came down in a wide, deliberate arc. Lance caught the blow on his shield, but the impact rocked him off his footing. He staggered two steps back, boots dragging in oil.

  Briggs stepped in, caught the monster’s side with a low slash that split open a section of mass. It didn’t bleed. It didn’t even slow. The wound reformed as fast as it opened.

  Kade lifted her pistol and snapped off a round toward the thing’s head. It hit square in what would have been the forehead if the creature possessed a face, but the shot passed through without resistance. The head was just more sludge.

  Mercer fired next, crossbow twanging in the static-heavy air. The bolt caught the creature in the shoulder. A moment later, Robin’s revolver barked once, then twice, her shots punching through the chest mass. The impact left no permanent shape. The thing just kept moving.

  The generator bucked again.

  Another line of oil burst toward the opposite wall, spraying across a section near the far corner. It hit the stone with a wet slap, spreading fast.

  Sparks from the nearby conduit snapped twice, then caught. Flame leapt across the oil pool as if it had been waiting for the invitation. The room lit red as the fire snapped high, oily smoke pushing upward in thick waves.

  The monster turned toward the flame. It moved slowly, but with purpose. Its mass pulled forward, aiming toward the burning pool like it recognized fuel waiting for collection.

  "Cut it off!" Kade shouted.

  Milo stepped across to intercept, shield raised. He caught the next swing low, but not clean. The blow skidded along his guard and drove into his shoulder. He grunted and dropped to one knee.

  The horror pushed forward, and Lance was in no position to pivot and stop it.

  Kade triggered her defensive class ability. Stormwall Stance took effect as she stepped in front of Milo, cutlass raised. The creature hit it hard, but her ability let her reduce the amount of incoming damage enough to make it manageable. She had expected Stormwall Stance to do in a pinch, but what she had not expected was how the abilities increase to parry an attack synergized with Riposte of the Kraken. She had parried practically every other attack, which allowed her to strike back with a hard-hitting riposte.

  Milo regained his footing quickly and took back the boss' attention, but for Kade it had seemed like an eternity of her facing down the boss with nothing but her cutlass.

  The Oozing Lantern seemed to pause all of its attacks as its chest heaved once, then again, then something inside it flexed. A spout of tar burst from its upper mass and hit Milo full in the chest, coating his front in thick sludge. The spray ran down his armor in slow sheets, eating into the seams. Kade saw it smoke.

  "Milo, move," she barked. If Milo got too close to the arcing conduits or the patch of flaming oil on the floor, Kade knew he's be in serious trouble.

  He shifted back without arguing, boots scraping stone while Lance banged his weapon on his shield to get the monster's attention.

  Another arc of oil jetted from the right side of the room. It struck a shallow channel and slid toward the back corner, where a second spark found it. The second blaze roared up beneath the leftmost conduit three meters from Stone’s position. Two blazes now, pushing heat into the center and shrinking their fighting space.

  "Running out of floor," Mercer called, eyes darting.

  "Then we need to kill it faster," Kade said.

  From the far side, Myers reappeared behind the monster.

  He moved like a ghost. The short blade in his hand gleamed once, then disappeared into the base of the creature’s spine. Or what passed for it. The blade sank deep, then twisted.

  For a second, the horror froze as what passed for its mouth recoiled in a silent scream. Then it retaliated.

  A tendril lashed out from the creature’s back, caught Myers square across the chest, and sent him flying sideways. He hit a metal post with a crash and crumpled behind a pile of coiled cable.

  "Myers!" Kade called out.

  "I’m good!" came his reply, muffled but clear. "Pissed, but good."

  Stone lifted one hand from her book, palm aimed toward the area Myers had flown off toward. Healing light flared faintly, then faded.

  The Oozing Lantern turned toward the opposite side of the room, body rippling as it adjusted. Fire flickered in its reflection, two walls of it now, curling up into the overhead conduit and spilling ash into the air. The generator hissed, pressure building.

  Kade checked the team.

  "Don’t let it reach that fire."

  Briggs stepped in to support Lance. This time Colt joined in. Colt swung once, then twice, denting a chunk of mass off the creature’s side. Briggs followed with a low sweep. Robin was already reloading. Mercer sighted for a fresh angle.

  The tar horror shifted its weight. Another groan rolled through the generator, followed by a violent shudder as a jet of oil burst from the cracked housing at its base. This time the spray hit directly beneath the creature. Black fluid spread wide, and the monster sank into it like a sponge. Its mass thickened, limbs swelling until the joints looked ready to burst.

  Kade braced for flame. The conduits overhead spat twice, sparks leaping across the air, but the arcs missed. No fire this time. Just fuel.

  The horror lurched, then twisted. Its torso bulged outward before sloughing away from itself, forming a second smaller shape.

  [Analyze] Lantern Spawn | Level: 15 Elite | Status: Hostile | Class: Abomination

  "New contact on the field!" Briggs barked, already moving to intercept the new creature.

  Kade followed him, boots splashing through shallow oil as the spawn surged forward. It was a third of the size of the main body but no less vicious. Ropes of tar lashed as it scrambled toward them.

  Robin stepped in on their flank, revolver already barking. One, two, three, then the rest of the cylinder. The rounds tore through the add, punching holes that closed again before the smoke cleared. She started reloading, eyes on the spawn.

  The larger horror lashed a tendril out in a wide arc. It clipped her square across the side, lifting her clean off her feet. Robin crashed into Levi, both of them tumbling backward into the copper conduits lining the chamber wall.

  Kade’s head snapped toward them. Levi sprawled across the sparking metal. His body jolted as the current caught him, arcs snapping bright across his chest and arms.

  Did she push him into that? Kade thought faster than she liked. Or did he just fail to move when he should have?

  She shoved it aside. The middle of a firefight was the wrong time to question your supposed allies. Even if you knew they were going to screw you over in the end.

  Levi rolled clear of the conduit, coughing, steam rising from his coat. He didn’t get up.

  "Briggs!" she snapped as she triggered Blade Whirl to drive her cutlass into the add multiple times. Tar split, Briggs’ axe following through a heartbeat later. Together, steel chewed through the mass until the smaller creature broke apart and collapsed into sludge. The spawn twitched once more, then stilled.

  Briggs lifted his axe, black ooze dripping from the edge. "Contact down!"

  The main fight hadn't paused.

  The Oozing Lantern swung again, its bulk relentless. Lance caught the tendril with his shield, boots grinding against stone as the blow shoved him back three steps. He stayed upright, shield braced, but the impact left a dent deep enough to bow the steel.

  Myers was suddenly there, slipping in from behind. His blade flashed once, then again. The second strike carved through the horror’s upper arm. Tar stretched, then snapped. The limb tore free mid-swing, the momentum flinging it across the chamber.

  It landed in one of the burning oil pools.

  Fire climbed the severed mass instantly, black flame roaring up as the arm twitched and melted into bubbling tar. The chamber stank of smoke and scorched rubber.

  The boss staggered, then righted itself. Its chest swelled. Another spray of oil blasted forward, coating Colt head to toe in thick sludge.

  Before he could shake it off, another tendril lashed across the front line. It caught him hard, hammering him back. Colt crashed into a wall brace, arcs spitting down from the conduit above. Oil lit at the edges of his coat, flames racing up his torso and across one arm.

  An almost primal scream of pain escaped his lips as he flailed around.

  "Colt, get to the extinguisher," Kade shouted.

  He didn’t. Couldn’t. It was obvious to Kade that the man was in so much pain that even the mantra drilled into everyone of stop, drop, and roll wasn't registering to him. Let alone moving to a room encounter mechanic meant to save him.

  Kade disengaged without hesitation. She tore her greatcoat off in one motion, the heavy fabric dragging across her shoulders. She threw herself at Colt, slamming the coat into his chest and wrapping it tight across the flames. Smoke billowed as she forced the fire down with sheer pressure.

  Stone was already there, hand pressed to Colt’s neck. Healing light pulsed through her palm, searing bright against the black burns and the charred edges of his skin.

  Behind them, the tar horror’s stump reformed. The missing limb folded upward from its mass, whole again.

  "Not slowing it," Mercer snapped from the flank. Her crossbow cracked twice, bolts punching in and vanishing without impact.

  The boss loomed forward, mass churning. The room was smaller now, ringed in fire.

  Kade forced Colt back toward Stone and raised her cutlass. Her gut told her the truth she didn’t want to say aloud. Every strike, every shot, every ounce of effort had only bought them seconds. The thing wasn’t weakening.

  Another gout of tar hissed from the generator, splattering across the chamber before it caught fire like the others. Flames roared higher, the heat driving sweat down her spine as the burning pools closed in from every side. The room was shrinking, funneling them into the monster’s reach.

  Kade set her stance, jaw tight. They weren’t going to win this fight unless they found a way to turn it. And they were running out of time and space.