“...Fuckin’ feral’s paradise, here. It’s...th’ damn ‘shrooms are huge!” Tora said as she craned her head every which way as she took in the glowing flora of the cavern.

Durin nodded. “The biomes are known for that. Still don’t know how they form, but they are beautiful, aren’t they?” He said, sweeping his own gaze over the expansive fungal ridden cavern.

“Not so much ‘beautiful’ as ‘excitin’ novelty that’ll wear off soon,” Tora replied as she turned around to face the way they came in as she walked. “I bet I’ll get used t’ it after a while.”

“Bogie, 6 o’clock,” Durin droned, summoning his pistol and firing a shot right by her.

“WHY TH’ FUCK WOULDJA DO THAT, Y’ RATBAG?!” Tora yowled as she glared amber daggers at him.

“Get down!” He soon tackled her to the ground as the sound of insectoid wings flew over them.

Tora kicked him off of her and then kicked herself back up onto her paws with Gabe already aimed up at in the direction the sound of the wings had gone.

What she saw beggared belief. It was a giant blue ladybug...with fungus all over it. Blue fungus. Glowing blue eyes, too.

Naturally, she shot both a bolt and a round at the thing as she bolted to the nearest vantage point.

One wing was blown off whilst the other halted, but despite crashing to the ground, it swiftly started to scuttle towards her, like a beast with a one-track mind for murder.

Making good use of the bayonet at the end of Gabe, she jabbed it right at the thing’s head when it got close enough, “FUCKIN’ DIE, Y’ BLOODY WEIRD BUG!”

It didn’t squeal, squeak, or make any noise save a sickening squelch, continuing to struggle, even weak as it was. Durin came over, putting a round into its head to end its life finally.

He offered her a hand up. “These things are hardy. It’ll take a lot to kill them. We have to work together, alright?”

“Sever the fuckin’ spine, or whatever it has!” Tora spat as she repeatedly bayoneted the dead insect until its head came off due to a lack of exoskeleton connecting it to the rest of the head.

Durin grabbed her shoulders. “Tora!” The tigress glared at him as she pulled the bayonet out of its head. “We don’t have time to focus on just one of these things! There’s gonna be loads more! Get it together!”

“DO YOU THINK I’M A FUCKIN’ DRONGO?! OF COURSE I KNOW THERE’LL BE MORE!” Tora hissed with pupils reduced to slits.

“THEN STOP FUCKING CUTTING INTO A CORPSE AND FOCUS ON THE THREE ZOMBIES COMING AT US!” He shot back, pointing to the shambling zombies with spores and glowing mushrooms all over them.

“FUCK YOU!” Tora yowled as she shot a round and then a bolt past his head, blowing the head off of one walking corpse and making a second briefly stumble to the ground with a bolt sticking out of its head.

Then Durin’s hand crackled with electricity, and he thrust his palm out, sending thousands of volts through the corpses. He followed this up with a blast of fire, thoroughly cooking them via both fire and lightning.

“Fuckin’ SHOWOFF!” Tora growled, firing another few bolts at the zombies from her perch atop a rock before clambering up a rather tall glowing mushroom and using that as her new sniping spot.

She saw well over a dozen zombies, ladybugs, and even what looked like a few crabs of sorts with - of course - mushrooms growing on them. And they were all heading towards the duo, as if having sensed their intrusion.

And so Tora set to work on firing bolt after bolt at the approaching mob, going for shots to the head or center-mass with surprising precision and fluidness.

To coincide with this, Durin was firing spell after spell and bullet after bullet at the oncoming horde, steadily dropping one after the other like flies.

“We need to go up there!” He pointed to a collection of mushrooms where a vast vein of glittering platinum ore was. “We mine that, we can get out of here before we’re overwhelmed!” He called to her.

“THEN FUCKIN’ GET IT, Y’ TWAT!” Tora shouted as she continued to shoot at the approaching horde. “BEFORE I RUN OUTTA ROUNDS, PREFERABLY!”

“CLEAR A PATH THEN!” He shot back, firing another round at one of the crustaceans.

“OH, WHY DIDN’T I THINK O’ THAT BEFORE! ABSOLUTELY NOVEL LI’L SUGGESTION Y’ JUS’ CAME UP WITH!” Tora yowled scathingly back at the man as she loaded another bolt into Gabe and fired it at a giant bug that was creeping up on him. “I’LL BE SURE T’ GIVE YA CREDIT FER IT WHEN WE GET TOPSIDE, YA WANKER!”

“SHUT UP AND KEEP FIRING, DAMMIT!” Durin yelled, slowly advancing towards the mushroom above which the ore rested.

“WELL DOESN’T THAT STAND OUT LIKE DOG’S BALLS!” Tora screamed at him, almost aiming at his head for a second before adjusting her aim to shoot a round at a crab that was rushing up to him from his left.

Durin ignored her, and soon enough he had reached the giant mushroom and began climbing it, having to fight off ladybugs constantly as the zombies clawed at the base to try and reach him.

Fed up with the situation, Tora jumped down from her perch and bayonet charged the mob of monsters with an unintelligible battle cry, stabbing and slashing and shooting at the monsters while dodging their attacks as they came.

Durin grit his teeth, watching her fight off the horde, before shaking his head and continuing his climb.

Tora dodged a particularly persistent zombie’s swipe and roundhouse-kicked it in the head, then slashed its throat with a knife before punching its head off and moving on to fend off the rest of them.

Finally reaching the top, Durin took out his pick and started to mine as fast as he could, the rhythmic cracking of pick on stone resounding throughout the cavern along with the moans of the zombies.

“WHEN DO Y’ THINK YOU’LL BE DONE FOSSICKIN’, MATE?!” Tora yelled above the cacophony of moans and insectoid screeches as she ducked and weaved through the lot of them with all the grace and flexibility her kind possessed.

Sadly, she was taking hits. A few zombies and crabs managed to score hits on her, knocking her back and making her thankful for the armor, because she could feel her ribs creak at their hits.

“Y’ WANNA BE M’ TUCKER?! THEN HIT ME AGAIN AN’ WE’LL SEE HOW CRAB LEGS ON ZOMBIE JERKY TASTES?!” Tora snarled as she continued to be a whirlwind of fuzzy wrath, grabbing one bug as it charged her and hurling it into the faces of two zombies that were poised to chomp on her back.

Another ladybug, as if to avenge it’s comrade, charged her immediately after, wings buzzing rapidly and mandibles poised to rip and tear.

Gabe’s barrel was shoved into the middle of its mandibles, followed by a round tearing through its insides like a ballista through a straw house. Naturally, it fell to the ground in a heap of torn fungi and insectoid guts.

And, naturally, more of it’s fungus ridden brethren filled the gap, a zombie coming up and trying to bite her arm that was holding Gabe. However…

“FUCK OFF!” Came Durin’s voice from above, followed by him falling onto the zombie and plunging his blade into it’s rotted skull.

“Thank y’ kindly, bastard!” Tora dipped her head in appreciation as she hopped out of range of another ladybug, then clambered up the nearest large rock and started firing into the approaching mob once again.

“Anytime! Now let’s blow this joint!” Durin urged, slicing a zombie clean in two.

“Didn’t have t’ even suggest it!” Tora shot back as she fired one last bolt into an already-wounded ladybug before turning on her heel and bolting back the way they came.

Durin clearing his way through what he would call the ‘Shroom Horde’, soon followed after her, but not before he thrust his palm behind him and shot a literal vortex of wind at the Horde, flinging and capturing them in harsh winds as he ran after Tora.

Then, Tora’s leg was grabbed by the upper half of a zombie. Tora yelped and kicked at its head to try to stun it or make it release her leg. Sadly, that only got it to pull harder, until she tripped and fell.

“LET GO OF M’ FUCKIN’ LEG, YA ROTTING FUCKER!” Tora shouted, now punching it in the face as well.

Durin, seeing this, stopped next to her and the zombie and swung his sword and severed its arm, before pulling the tigress up and starting to run again. “Come on! There’s more on their way!”

“Again, y’ don’t need t’ tell me twice!” Tora replied as she made good use of her long legs to run forward on all fours.

Soon enough, they made it to the exit, and as they did, Durin whirled around and closed off the cave with a few blocks of wood, before letting out a sigh of relief. “Fuck…” He looked to her. “You alright?”

“Doin’ ace, ‘side from bein’ outta breath cuz a’ runnin’ on all fours,” Tora replied between every pant that came out of her muzzle. “An’ you?”

Durin nodded, letting out much more slow and easy breaths. “Witcher. Better endurance than most. I’ll be fine.”

“Well, good on y’, Durin,” Tora said as she finally caught her breath and looked back at the blocked-up entrance. “...Y’ aren’t gonna go back in there again, are ya?”

He looked where she was looking, and then back to her. “I might, but for now it’s best to block it off and let those things calm down.”

“...Yeah, I don’t really think that th’ fuckin’ things know how t’ ‘calm down,’ mate,” Tora pointed out as she checked herself over for any wounds, bites or other discrepancies in her health.

Durin looked her over. “Seems they made a few scratches in your armor. I’ll have to fix it up for you when we get back.”

“A’ight, sounds good t’ me,” Tora nodded, then gestured to the tunnel ahead of them. “So, shall we get th’ fuck outta here?”

Durin nodded, dismissing his weapon. “Yeah, let’s.

Not our best work, but me and Nova will fix it when we can. Sorry, all.