This time, my rifle punched right through the white-hot chitin, and the kaneg made a screeching sound as its body jerked and convulsed. I realized that the round had sufficient power to punch through the weakened layer, but after entering the creature was bouncing through its soft core materials until its energy was expended.

The kaneg collapsed and I quickly looked to see how the others were doing.

It didn't look good.

The drakes and Creadean's friror were doing their best to help, one of the beasts had Flendreir gripped in one of its mantis claws as it used the other three and its mandibles to fend off matrons and...