"Move! Move!"

The soldiers were on a speedboat as they sped up towards a nearby house, preparing to clear each building manually despite the severity of the storm.

In fact, since the start of the catastrophic storm, it was now slowing down as the rain poured less heavily for the past day. To the surprise of the many, the floodwaters were also rescinding down at a quick rate, as if the water found an indescribable hole that they could fill in.

It was a surprising one, and a welcoming one. They could now navigate the area with greater speed and efficiency than ever.

Finally, hope is on the horizon. Now the only thing that they have to finish is the monsters that have invaded their motherland and bring the perpetrators into justice while the storm was much weaker.

"On your right! Fire!"

Flashes of gunfire pierced the desolate streets as the forces of the Liberation Army marched down the area.

"Above us! Fire!"

The ground was littered with the remains of slain monsters. After which, the soldiers worked to remove the barriers that were once set up earlier to protect their retreating troops.

As the floodwaters receded, leaving only half a foot of water, the atmosphere became heavier as the soldiers could see the dead bodies of their fellow comrades who had died defending their motherland and civilians who hadn't made it out alive.

Sadly, they couldn't recover the bodies at the moment, so all the respect they could give is to move the bodies to a place that is somewhat more respectable and out of the way to avoid being disturbed when the armored amphibious vehicles drive by.

After moving the bodies, a soldier approached the armored columns of amphibious vehicles and used a light stick to signal the vehicles to move on, confirming the area was clear.

The soldiers methodically cleared the city street by street. As time went by, the entire city of Nusantara was progressively rid of all the monstrous invaders, though not without significant loss.

Triage and hospital camps were quickly being filled with wounded soldiers and civilians who had survived the onslaught. Fortunately, the dedicated nurses were able to handle the situation swiftly, ensuring there was no backlog of the wounded.

Panning back to the soldiers, they've now entered one of the last houses and were combing it if there were any civilians left and if there are any monsters around.

As one soldier scanned the rooms, he noticed a family portrait on a nearby table. The image depicted a father, a mother, two brothers, a little girl at the age of six, five puppies, and three kittens. An idyllic snapshot of a loving family.

Moved by the picture, the soldier made his way upstairs to reach the second floor. He methodically checked many of the rooms until he reached the last door, judging by the pink and colorful design, he guessed it might be the little girl.

Upon opening the pink door with a quink, what he stumbled on left a deep impression on him.

He saw five that seemed to be the family in the portrait downstairs were hanging on the ceiling.

"Did they kill themselves?" The soldier wondered aloud as he felt his heart sink at the tragic scene. He wondered whether they had taken their own lives in a desperate bid to escape the horrors that had befallen their city.

Upon observing it more, the soldier realized the figures hanging from the ceiling were ensnared in a spider web, as if cocooned by a monstrous creature. The soldier immediately understood that a monster had killed the family, and he turned to his back to alert his squad that a monster was inside the house.

But before he could shout, he felt a sharp pain in his neck and a sudden warmth spreading down his chest. He touched his neck and found there was blood. No, in fact, he was bleeding profusely in the neck. That's when the blood finally gushed out and splattered through the surroundings, painting the interior with crimson flowers.

As the soldier fell to his knees and was about to lose consciousness, he saw that there was a small humanoid figure on all fours behind him, which he had failed to notice. It was a colossal blunder, one that could never be reversed.

*Thud!*

The soldier collapsed onto his back, making a loud noise that alerted his squad. They rushed to the scene, only to find their comrade dead with his throat slit. The loss of their fellow soldier cast a shadow over their faces as they prepared to confront the lurking danger within the house.

"Make sure your weapons aren't in safety mode! We've just lost a man!" the squad's sergeant commanded with urgency in his voice.

"Copy that, sir!" the soldiers replied in unison, sharing a somber glance at their fallen comrade as they moved on.

As they continued their sweep, one of the soldiers approached the dead soldier, scanning the room for any signs of danger. That's when he finally saw a creature on all fours, clinging to the ceiling and staring down at him menacingly. The creature has the appearance of a little girl, with elongated limbs, pallid white skin, and long dark hair obscuring her entire face.

"It's the fucking Grudge!" the soldier shouted in horror as he quickly aimed his rifle and fired at the monstrous apparition.

Unfortunately, the grudge-like monster was able to dodge his shot and lunged at the soldier at an incredibly fast speed. The soldier continued firing, which alerted the other soldiers in front of him, but it was too late for the soldier as the creature flipped through the air and slashed his chest.

Fortunately, every other soldier finally noticed the monster and was so focused with all their might on shooting the woman, sending it collapsing to the floor.

"Is it dead?" the soldier asked.

As if to confirm his point, the little girl suddenly started to spasm on the spot. Bone cracking sounds could be heard from it as she appeared to change shape.

"What in God's name is going on?" All the soldiers aimed their weapons at the little girl who appeared to look taller and thinner. Her limbs seemed elongate while its bodies hunched lower.

"Rahhhh!" the little girl screamed out like a Banshee, falling back as her head appeared to grow horns. The soldiers looked with horror as the flesh on the cheeks of the once innocent little girl ripped apart as she opened her mouth in agony. Her teeth fell off from her mouth in bloody chunks as fangs grew in its place and the wide eyes behind her hair turned yellow.

"This has gotten a lot worse!" The sergeant cried out in horror. "Fire at it again!"

Almost instantly the soldiers opened fire, and the heavy rounds hammered hard against the possessed girl as her body underwent horrifying transformations. Bloody nails fell off as claws grew out, while bone spars pushed through flesh, skin, and cloth.

"BACK! FALL BACK!" The Sergeant yelled and started shoving the fear rooted soldiers towards the hallway. "GO!"

Immediately, the soldiers drag themselves back into the hallway where they find more of their soldiers staring at them in confusion.

"RUN! GET OUT OF HERE!" The Sergeant appeared behind them and tossed a grenade behind them. "FRAG OUT!"

The captain looked confused but he quickly acted, ordering the soldiers to evacuate the building. As they exited the room, the doors exploded as a vaguely humanoid creature smashed its way through.

Everyone looked back in horror at the creature with a permanent grin whose skin over the face was so tightly stretched that it had torn off in many places, exposing the flesh underneath. It had skeletal arms with claws and a pair of serpentine horns growing out from the side of its head.

Its body appeared thinner as the quite form fitting cloak now looks baggy over its skinny and tall frame. It turned its bloody head and gave a peal of mad laughter as it hungrily stared at the soldiers menacingly.

"fEsSh MeAt!"

"RUN!" Someone cried and it became a mad scramble up the stairs.

The seargent of the team cursed and quickly ordered, "Provide covering fire!"

The training the soldiers had, took over and they quickly turned and fired at the monstrosity, buying time for the rest to climb down the stairs. The monster flinched as shots hammered against its body causing foul smelling dark red blood to splatter all over the cellars.

"Fall back!" The order finally came and the soldiers quickly climbed down the stairs.

Outside of the house, dozens of soldiers roam around the streets to search for any survivors or monsters. But in the next second, they were startled by the loud noise of gunfire and a group of soldiers running out of the house.

"What is HQ's reply?" the sergeant asked as he caught his breath after minutes of running.

"They are sending in the rest of Eagle company to support us!" The radioman replied. "But they are at least five minutes away!"

"Shit!" The sergeant cursed. "Never mind! Call-"

The side of the house exploded into bits of wood, plaster, and stone as a hulking creature roared. It crawled out on all fours, not like some kind of beast, but its stance made it look like an arachnid. Tatters of clothing remained on its body as bone spars and thorns had grown out everywhere.

Its head no longer had any resemblance of a person anymore as long blunt fanged snot had stretched the skin tautly.

"Hold firm, men!" The captain's voice roared out and he raised his handgun at it, "Kill that motherfucker!"

With their hearts fortified, the soldiers fired at the monster, which screamed in pain while trying to close in with the soldiers.

"Die you beast!" roared out from a soldier who advanced step by step forward while hip firing his machine gun. The bright red tracers peppered the monster and the force of the bullets sent sprawling to the ground.

"Kill it!" The soldiers yelled a war cry and advanced up by fire movement, their shots forcing the monster to be unable to do anything and before long, it laid on unmoving on the ground with gunshot wounds all over.

Even the house front was so badly shot up, it looked like a mini warzone with numerous bullet holes all over the walls.

"Cease fire!" The sergeant ordered. "Some go check if that thing is dead!"

The soldiers poke and prod the bodies for a while before yelling, "Clear! It is de-"

The soldiers' cries were abruptly silenced as the spider-like creature held the pair and threw them into the sky, sending them falling to their deaths. In the next breath, the creature used its razor-sharp, sword-like claws to slice another soldier into four pieces with blinding speed.

Seeing it still alive, the soldiers rallied and concentrated their firepower on the monstrous being with all their might on shooting it.

But it was no use as their bullets seemed ineffective against its growing armored hide. The creature begins to crawl around like a giant spider, dodging their attacks and closing in on the soldiers with frightening speed.

As the creature was about to cut down another soldier in two, it was suddenly being hit by a rocket launched from a distance. The explosive impact staggered the creature, creating an opening for the soldiers.

The rocket had been fired by a soldier equipped with an RPG, standing alongside a group of reinforcements who had arrived just in time. Their arrival gave the soldiers hope and the support they desperately needed to confront the deadly monster.

Despite the devastating power from the rocket destroying a huge chunk of its flesh, the monster's regenerative power allowed it to slowly recover. However, the reinforcements wasted no time on bringing out their grenade launchers and began firing at it, preventing it from mounting a counterattack as it was being stunlocked by a barrage of grenades without stopping, denying the monster any chance to heal or retaliate effectively.

Before the monster could formulate a coherent plan, the soldier in the center once again fired another anti-tank missile, hitting the monster squarely and sending it crashing into a bus in the distance with a bone-shattering impact.

While the battle raged on, a soldier stationed further back was on the radio, communicating with someone before he turned to shout to his team.

"Fall back! Air support is inbound!"

At his command, the other soldiers withdrew to a safe distance, and the light armored vehicles moved away.

In an act of bravery, some of the severely injured soldiers held their ground as they continued shooting the monster to keep it at bay for a moment longer. Their bravery provided critical time for the others to retreat and for the air support to arrive.

On the outskirts of Nusantara, an aircraft can be seen moving through the sky, its engines humming loudly and its motors spinned at high speed as its array of lethal weapons it possessed were prepared to unleash its devastating firepower that is enough to grind an entire neighborhood to dust within minutes.

This monstrous aircraft was one of the Austronesian Empire's infamous machines of war, the AH-12 Thunderwing.



"This is Cobra-99, are we clear to engage?" The pilot of the gunship asked through the radio, having locked onto the monster in the distance through his helmet's targeting system.

[Affirmative! Weapons free!] the soldier replied over the radio.

"Copy that..."

In an instant, the AH-12 shot numerous rockets. The projectiles flew through the sky at incredible speed, covering hundreds of meters in seconds before reaching the monster, bombarding it with a rain of rockets as thick clouds of dust erupted from the impact, obscuring the ground and blanketing the entire neighborhood.

As the dust settled, the soldiers saw the monster had been utterly obliterated as its body lay in pieces scattered across the area, evidence that it could not fight back by the might of superior firepower of the gunship!

As the troops regrouped after the battle, a soldier spotted one troop manage to survive near the blast site and immediately called out to the rest of the soldiers.

"There's a soldier alive over here! He's wounded and bleeding! Quick, he can still be saved! Move him to the triage nearby!"

Two soldiers hurried to their wounded comrade, carefully placing him above on a stretcher, to which they then rushed him to the medical field for urgent treatment.

With the battle won, the entire city of Nusantara was now clear, so now the army proceeded to advance toward other areas and reestablish contact with isolated military outposts across Austronesia. The whole nation is now mobilized and is quickly advancing on all fronts as the flood rescinds and the storm becomes less heavy.

The might and unity of Austronesia is unbreakable through thick and thin, and they would survive and persevere together!

Or are they?