// 2024-01-01 // by Neon
This is the second story of a short series originally written for paricipation in the Infinity Shattergrounds global campaign. The other story in this set can be found here. 
Klaxxons and alarms blared as red lights flashed! Guns ablaze, bursts of orange muzzle flash strobed like a discordant discotheque.
A black clad Druze agent, donned in the characteristic yellow visor, shouted into his radio, “We’re under heavy fire! Requesting immediate backup!”. In one fluid motion, he lobbed several grenades over the wall behind him with a launcher, dropped the launcher, adeptly grabbed the combi rifle hanging from a strap on his chest, spun around, and unleashed at a volley at a screaming berserk sword-swinging Caledonian on a rooftop beside him.
An overwhelming gutteral roar broke out, thunderously booming louder than even the intense gunfire. An enormous bear, covered in thick crude plate armour, stormed into the mix of cornered Druze operatives, unloading a chain rifle left and right, spraying shrapnel and destruction as far as the eye could see, dropping soldiers faster than they could scream for their mothers in their dying breaths.
Out of the shadows, a shimmering light brought a glimmer of hope to the quickly deteriorating situation. A lightning fast figure darted from left to right, running at the bear head first with a huge ōdachi in hand. The masked samurai lept and swung down, unleashing his great strength as he came down.
But the bear was faster, blocking the immense blow with the middle of its ursine-sized chain rifle. The sword had embeded itself into the side of the gun, so the bear pushed forward and instantly wrestled the samurai to the ground, pinning him down.
In a single terrifying gulp, the bear’s gaping jaws beared down and ripped the samurai’s skull straight from his spine, blood spurting all over the bear’s face from the decapitated man’s jetting arteries. An ominous crunch rang across the battlefield as the bear pulverised the unlucky samurai’s skull in its mouth, swallowed it hole, and then roared in thirst for more blood.
click, click
“Seriously? It looks like I’ve been thwarted again by the Dark Lord Siroth™.” Viyan sighed and set down her phone as her watch chirped. The intelligence package was ready for uplink. She strutted over to a the nearby rooftop antenna; all Viyan had to do was physically override the transmitter for a direct signal to an offsite receiver.
She pried open the access panel to reveal a mess of cables, one of which she quickly tapped with an electronic data spike. Opening the data package, she realised the sheer importance of what was in the data package she was there to upload. Stored in the EERC’s research archives was this week’s sponsor code: Use code NUMI_AND_NOURKI_SITTIN_IN_A_TREE to unlock the Valentine Lovers Pack (Valiant paladin Lady Numiria and devilish rogue Nourkias) along with 4,000 social energy in Raid: Shadow Legends today!
As the transmission progress bar reached 100%, Viyan watched the uplink package disappear into the digital abyss. She smirked and faded into the shadows with her thermoptic camouflage.
This battle report has been sponsored by Raid®: Shadow Legends™!*
*Note: I am not endorsed by or associated with Raid: Shadow Legends in any way. This story is a parody of their asinine adverts. Please don’t come burn my house down.