Nick carefully wiped the bolo knife, its edge now chipped with several rice-sized notches. After a moment's thought, he still felt a little disgusted, so he tore off a small piece of his T-shirt to pad the spine before cautiously gripping it between his teeth.
Dahlia stood beneath the tree with a worried expression, watching Nick deftly avoid the jellylike transparent vines as he climbed the trunk little by little.
The monster's nest, which covered nearly a thousand square meters, was clearly in some kind of dormant state. The humanoid figures wrapped in cocoons merely squirmed unconsciously.
Fluid could be seen flowing through the transparent vines that kept them suspended, like umbilical cords supplying nutrients to embryos in a womb.
When Nick came face-to-face with one of them, watching in horror as the misshapen humanoid mass opened its enormous mouth at him in a silent howl, an emotion called anger surged uncontrollably within him.
He recognized the humanoid inside this cocoon. Although its features had become like melted hot wax, scraps of its clothes remained, and a camouflage backpack still hung behind it.
JD, that somewhat talkative Black Brit. His limbs had melted into transparent tentacles and fused with the vines.
His belly had become enormous, filled with an unknown liquid that churned constantly and flickered with an eerie red glow. A short length of severed rope still dangled from his waist.
A bullet was embedded in his now semitransparent skull.
Nick could almost picture it: when the helicopter came to pick JD up, he had waved excitedly in greeting, only to be met with a cold gun barrel and a merciless bullet.
Then they had cut the rope, letting the body fall into the canyon before the helicopter flew away.
Every tower keeper in the canyon had probably met much the same end.
So this nameless thing was actually the womb that gestated all the "Hollow Men." Nick had no idea what would happen if it woke, but with hundreds of humanoid "embryos" wrapped inside it, the outcome probably would not be good.
He took great care not to touch the transparent vines winding around the tree, while also picking branches that looked sturdy enough to climb. It was no easy task.
Based on his earlier experience, those trees could also be animated. Perhaps the trees themselves were the actual creatures. God knew what would happen if he broke a branch underfoot.
At last, Nick reached the first static rope.
Since one end of the rope had fallen into the cocoon nest, he could only cut through it bit by bit with the bolo knife, keeping his movements as small as possible while watching for any sign that he had disturbed the indescribable thing.
Dealing with the first rope went smoothly. Although he left a long section behind, the remaining length swung toward the distant cliff face when he released it and successfully reached the ground.
Nick looked up at the second static rope. Judging by the material, it was the one originally tied around Dahlia's waist. Before jumping off the cliff, he had kicked down all the spare length at once, and it now wound in a broad loop through the canopy.
Both types of military static rope were extremely strong, capable of bearing over three tons, far more than their combined weight. In theory, they only needed one of them.
But with two ropes available, entrusting both their lives to just one did not feel quite safe enough, so Nick chose to keep climbing and retrieve the second.
But just as he barely reached it, an ominous crack sounded beneath his feet.
Nick looked down. The branch beneath his right foot had snapped halfway through, and foul-smelling black fluid seeped from the break. Then the entire tree inexplicably began to tremble, letting out a terrifying, piercing shriek.
Instantly, all the grotesque humanoids wrapped in cocoons joined the howling. The sound stabbed painfully at his eardrums, and at the same time, the entire cocoon nest began contracting violently.
As though that howl had been some kind of signal, all manner of ghastly wails rose one after another, spreading from near to far and echoing throughout the canyon.
He had really stirred up a hornet's nest. Steeling himself, Nick hacked down desperately several times, finally severing the lower section of the static rope in his hand.
"Dasha! Do it!" he roared toward the foot of the tree. Clamping the knife's spine between his teeth again, he grabbed the rope and swung down.
At the same time, after a series of constipated contractions, the cocoon nest forcibly snapped and retracted several transparent vines, which shot like lightning toward Nick's position on the trunk.
It really was a fucking tentacle monster.
Just then, a tremendous explosion sounded outside the woods. The C4 trip mine they had set earlier had been triggered. Their pursuers had arrived.
With two bangs, Dahlia gritted her teeth and hurled two containers of Potato Vodka against the trunk, shattering them with a pained look on her face. She squeezed the trigger hard, and a high-explosive grenade flew out with a thump. Flames instantly erupted.
Nick released the rope before hitting the ground and rolled to absorb the impact. Staggering to his feet, he sheathed his knife, caught the M4A1 Dahlia tossed him, and pulled the trigger on its underslung grenade launcher, firing their last grenade.
Inside the burning cocoon nest, the large transparent cocoons enclosing the humanoids split open one after another, like silkworm pupae bursting with juice on a grill.
Semitransparent skeletons wrapped in half-congealed fluid dropped to the ground, writhing in agony and letting out shrill, infantlike screams.
Nick grabbed Dahlia, who had been left somewhat dazed by the horrifying, bizarre sight, turned, and ran.
An unknown number of "Hollow Men" charged out of the mist into the woods. Most hurled themselves recklessly toward the blazing cocoon nest like moths to a flame, while some rushed straight at the pair, clawing wildly.
The entire canyon was now like a boiling vat of oil. All the mutated creatures let out teeth-grating shrieks toward the sky as though the end of the world had come.
"Move!" Nick pulled Dahlia to the cliff, took out the powered rope ascender, and shoved it into her hands. He grabbed another static rope and wound it around her waist, then wrapped it around himself.
By the time he finished his preparations, Dahlia had installed the powered ascender. She pressed the start button, and it carried them slowly upward.
This small tool for working at height ran on an internal battery. Its maximum climbing speed was no more than half a meter per second, but it could usually run continuously for over an hour.
The "Hollow Men," however, climbed the cliff far faster than the device. Soon, a crowd of pursuers appeared beneath their feet, clinging densely to the sheer rock like ants as they rapidly closed in.
"We have to kill them all, or we're dead when we get near the top!" Dahlia shouted down to Nick below her.
Near the top of the cliff were numerous suspended proximity mines, along with laser sensors that could trigger the automated turrets.
Whichever one these "Hollow Men" triggered, the two of them would die along with them.
Before you continue