[A/N: This is an AI assisted version of the latest chapter. Do you think this is better and worth doing like this for future chaps? If not Ill go back to writing and editting manually. I just took the chapter i wrote and asked it to rewrite with better descriptions and correct grammar. Then i edited it by hand to make it closer to my style and fixed anything it added that didnt fit. It added an additional 400 words to what I orignally wrote.
PS Sorry for the wait.]
The tide of battle had shifted.
With the stealth suit activated, I moved through the chaos like a specter, slipping in and out of sight between bursts of gunfire and screams.
One moment, I would materialize behind an enemy with Fuckbringer pressed against a skull. The next, a single shot would ring out, and the merman would collapse as I disappeared back into the shadows.
The mermen quickly learned to attack whenever I revealed myself. It didn't matter. I dodged their strikes, ducked behind cover, and vanished again before they could surround me.
Merman Milo began roaring in frustration as his comrades were picked off one after another.
I appeared again, Fuckbringer pressed against another skull.
*Bang*
Another body dropped.
Milo reacted immediately, throwing a massive chunk of debris toward me with a furious sweep of his clawed hand.
But by the time the twisted piece of tank metal came crashing into the spot where I had been standing, I was already appearing behind another merman.
"Surprise!" I shouted with a manic laugh.
*Bang*
Another head exploded, and the body collapsed to the floor.
The nearby mermen lunged at me in a frenzy, but I dropped a frag grenade at my feet and disappeared.
*BOOM*
Three more mermen were blown off their feet.
Three more sent to Davy Jones' Locker... or where ever mutant fish freaks went to when they died.
'Only five left...'
My adrenaline was running at its peak. The exhaustion and pain weighing down my body were temporarily suppressed by the drug like effects coursing through me.
For the moment, I felt unstoppable.
One by one, the remaining mermen fell.
When the last one finally hit the ground, the laboratory fell silent.
Smoke drifted through the air. Debris and bodies littered the floor.
The Overseer was practically fuming with rage.
Milo stood nearby, baring his ugly, feral fangs at me.
I stood barely a meter away, Fuckbringer aimed directly at his face. Yet my attention remained fixed on the Overseer.
"Is that all you had?" I asked mockingly. "Once I kill this one, aren't you pretty much fucked?"
"Bastard!" the Overseer snarled. "That was years of work you just destroyed. You leave me no choice…"
The Davy Jones lookalike reached down and pressed another button.
I barely had time to wonder what it did before Milo chose that exact moment to attack.
A nearby tank tore free from the floor and rose into the air at the wave of his clawed hand.
Unfortunately for him, my Electro Bolt plasmid was faster.
Electricity surged from my hand and struck Milo.
His enormous body locked up instantly. His muscles seized, and his large, fanged mouth hung open in a frozen scream.
I moved before the paralysis could wear off, I was already in front of him. Fuckbringer's barrel was lodged against the roof of his mouth.
I looked into his eyes with pity, "Sorry, kid. If you can still hear me, I hope you have a better life next time."
*Bang*
The top of Milo's cranium erupted outward, and his massive body collapsed like a sack of potatoes.
The Overseer stared at the corpse for a moment before throwing his head back with a confident laugh.
"It doesn't matter if all my soldiers are dead!" he barked. "I called Cthulhu, and now your fate is sealed!"
"Cthulhu? As in Lovecraft?" I asked curiously.
'Is he one of those crazy Scientologists?'
I had an idea what he actually meant by Cthulhu, but I hoped I was wrong.
The Overseer remained where he stood, his telekinetic barrier still shimmering around him. A smug smile stretched across his fishy face.
Rather than stand around and wait for whatever he had planned to arrive, I sprinted toward the wreckage where Jonny had been buried.
I grabbed a heavy slab of twisted metal and hauled it away before digging deeper into the rubble.
"Boss?" Jonny's muffled voice called from inside the damaged power armor. "Please hurry! I feel like a sardine in a can right now!"
"Relax, just give me a second."
The armor was too damaged for its normal release mechanism, so I grabbed the manual crank on the back and twisted it.
The battered power armor groaned as its seals released. The suit slowly opened, and Jonny practically crawled out of it, stumbling as he tried to regain his balance.
"Whoa…" He stared at the devastation surrounding us.
Corpses of mermen and twisted debris littered the laboratory floor. Smoke drifted through the air, and the stench of blood and gunpowder hung heavily around us.
Jonny swallowed hard before looking at me. "You're scary, boss…"
"Shut up. It's here…"
As much as I enjoyed being praised, my attention had already shifted to the moon pool in the center of the laboratory.
The water began to churn and something enormous moved beneath the surface.
Then the first tentacle emerged.
Another followed.
Then another.
Massive, slick appendages rose from the water, dripping seawater across the laboratory floor as they writhed and twisted toward the ceiling.
The Overseer began laughing the kind of laughter of someone who believed he'd already won.
"Behold! Cthulhu! My ultimate weapon from beneath the sea!"
He practically T-posed as one of the massive tentacles coiled around him and lifted him into the air.
"You surface dwelling rats should have stayed on the dirt where you belong!" he shouted. "Down here, I AM A GOD!"
Jonny trembled as he pointed toward the enormous creature. "Tha… that's the Kraken!"
"No shit, genius. A toddler could have figured that out."
I said it sarcastically, but internally, I was cursing my own stupidity.
'I should have known it wasn't some random mutant animal conveniently swimming around the area.'
The fishmen, the mind control the Overseer himself...
That smug bastard hadn't shown the desperation I'd expected when someone single handedly dismantled his entire army.
'This was the real boss fight.'
Cthulhu hadn't fully emerged from the water yet. So far, only its tentacles had broken the surface.
That was bad enough.
Each one was as thick as a tree trunk and long enough to reach across the entire laboratory.
Then they started moving.
The tentacles slammed into the floor like enormous whips, smashing through equipment and sending debris flying.
"Jonny," I said, giving him a thumbs-up. "Don't die, okay?"
A tentacle crashed down where I had been standing a moment earlier.
"Fuck!" Jonny shouted.
We both moved to survive the onslaught.
The laboratory became a maze of destruction as the tentacles thrashed wildly around us.
I dodged one, jumped over another, and threw myself sideways as a third slammed into the floor.
Jonny scrambled between tanks and other obstacles, barely managing to stay ahead of the destruction.
But my stamina was running low.
The adrenaline that had carried me through the earlier fight was fading, and the pain was starting to catch up with me.
My body was battered, and the effort of avoiding getting hit was draining what little stamina I had left.
Then I made one mistake, my footing slipped.
A tentacle lashed out and struck me and sent my body flying across the laboratory.
I slammed into a metal tank hard enough to leave a human-shaped dent in its side.
"Grah!"
Bile rose into my throat as I dragged myself out of the dent.
I reached into my inventory and pulled out another survival syringe.
Without hesitation, I jammed it into my side and activated the injector.
Warmth spread through my body.
I could feel my health and stamina being restored as it began working but did little for the growing fatigue and needed rest.
Unfortunately, I didn't have time to dwell, as a massive shadow passed over me.
I threw myself sideways and the tentacle slammed into the floor, missing me by inches.
I rolled away and scrambled back to my feet.
'This isn't going to work.'
I was too focused on dodging, if I kept running, eventually I'd make one mistake too many.
I needed to eliminate the threat.
My irises glowed green and I activated VATS.
The world slowed down around me as targeting markers appeared over the writhing tentacles.
I locked onto the closest tentacle and fired six shots.
The bullets tore into one of the attacking tentacles.
Several struck the same area, ripping deep into its flesh.
The enormous appendage recoiled and writhed violently, thrashing against the floor in pain.
I jumped onto the top of a nearby tank and aimed at another tentacle as it drew back to strike.
*Bang!*
The shot hit and the appendage recoiled.
But I noticed something that made my stomach sink.
The first tentacle I'd damaged was already regenerating.
The torn flesh rapidly sealed itself, muscle and tissue knitting back together before the appendage rose again.
It returned to the attack as though I'd barely wounded it.
'Oh, you've got to be kidding me.'
Above the moon pool, the Overseer was carried through the air by one of the tentacles.
He watched the battle with arrogant satisfaction.
The Kraken's appendages slammed down around me like whips, striking from unpredictable angles.
I was constantly moving, dodging and weaving as four separate tentacles chased me through the laboratory.
Jonny was luckier.
The Overseer clearly considered me the greater threat.
Only one tentacle pursued Jonny, and even that one seemed almost lazy compared to the relentless assault directed at me.
But even while dodging, I couldn't stop analyzing the battlefield.
The Overseer's attention was almost entirely focused on me.
And the Kraken's movements reflected it.
'He pushed a button, and this thing showed up.'
I jumped over another sweeping tentacle.
'The Kraken is being directly controlled by the Overseer.'
I fired at an incoming appendage before it could strike me.
'Which means if I disrupt whatever he's doing…'
I landed on top of another tank.
'…this thing might stop.'
I looked toward the Overseer, then down at my hands.
A new kind of syringe was in one hand and a different type of grenade I had yet to use was in my other.
A grin spread across my face. "Playtime is over."