The four fungal-controlled beasts lunged across the boundary of the cleared clearing, their movements unnaturally swift and devoid of self-preservation instinct. The corrupted Mountain Chimera Wolf charged straight at Arthur, its jaws snapping on empty air as white fungal cords stretched between its teeth like rotting rubber bands.
Arthur didn’t raise his lethal heavy dark metal ammunition. He reached into his tactical vest, withdrawing a specialized speed-loader filled with four six-inch acid-burn collagenase darts. The same potion-made formula he had blended to dissolve Inquisitor Rask’s rotting graft seams.
“Titus! Pin the wolf’s front limbs!” Arthur shouted.
Titus met the charging wolf with the patient, unbending mass of an ancient mountain. The great terrapin didn’t strike. He simply stepped forward six inches. He allowed the wolf’s chest to slam against the sloping dark rock armor of his front belly shell.
THUD.
The impact was fully absorbed by Titus’s Xuanwu core. Before the wolf could scramble backward, Titus lowered his massive front left claw, pinning the animal’s forelegs firmly to the mulch with the unmoving weight of two tons. The wolf thrashed wildly, snapping its jaws inches from Titus’s thick, leathery neck. But Titus merely blinked his heavy yellow eyes, fully unfazed by the fungal snapping.
