His hoverbike cut through the water like a knife through butter as he approached the shore of the Western Continent. On this side it was just mountains and jagged ravines that he would have somewhat difficulty traversing. To start with the beach side town was the only entrance into these mountains unless he wanted to climb one of the sheer mountain sides.

That should be interesting but the beach town meant fisher men and women, he did not judge. But as he flew over the water he was surprised by the lack of action from any of the boats. As he activated his electrical sigh he was shocked to see there was nothing on the boats. Not even dead bodies.

Even stranger if that was possible was the lack of dead fish. This was probably a fishing village since it was located on the waters and with those docks in the distance it only made sense. So why was there nothing living in sight?

As he arrived at the docks he jumped off his hoverbike and it disappeared as he materialized his knife with its sheath. He was about to materialize one of his guns too when he suddenly felt something off. Then he felt that the ability to call it out was blocked... again.

Before he had time to look around and find the culprit, a sudden thick fog rolled in. "Well shit." Jace cursed before he tried to connect to Cain. But all he was getting was static. Not like local interference but more like something was blocking all signals within a large area. Considering he did not notice until he set foot on the dock, he must be right on the border of this blockage. "Double shit." He cursed as he slowly walked along the dock.

His thoughts ran a mile a minute calculating the reason for this. Then he realized something. Something small he saw while he was hacking into local military systems. The local government had a biological research facility here. This facility housed the recent incoming people from the Mortella ship.

So connecting the dots. He realized that the chances are... those creatures from the Mortella’s ship had escaped and were now running rampant all over this continent. He could go to the root of the problem and deal with it. But honestly, he did not care. But at the moment it was bothering him, that one of the creatures had made it to this shore already.

"Jaaacceee..." He heard a voice in the distance as he stepped onto the shore and off the docks. It was coming from one of the small sheds located near the shore. He could see a light flickering through the window, probably a flame.

At least that is what his mind was telling him. "An illusion. How is it done?" Jace spoke aloud. He focused on a mind and concluded that his mind was still sealed. But his suit was not. It was in the air. Considering he closed up his suit as soon as the fog rolled in. It must have been in the actual air and the fog was another part of the illusion... maybe.

Jace quickly activated his suit’s system to filter the air. It would work for a little while but he still had to get out of the range of whatever was causing this. But first he had to know what was an illusion and what was real. As he turned away from that shed with a glow coming from the window and walked up to the main street of the town, not that he could see it, he knew it was the wrong move.

Confirmed it too, as a moment later a force ran into his back and he was launched into the air. Honestly it caught him off guard as he flew through the fog and crashed into something. As did the feel of something broken as he stood up. Was it his spine? Probably.

But after a moment he could feel a tightness in his back. Then hear the cracking as it straightened up. But he turned his attention to where he was. It looked like a bar or restaurant. Plenty of tables and bottles of alcohol. The building was made of wood and glass, fragile glass windows. A few of which he destroyed when he was knocked into the building.

In fact there was now a giant hole where he came in from. He was still under the effect of the illusion drugged air. So he had to come up with a plan to take out whatever hit him. Because it did it the moment he deviated from whatever plan it had. Actually if he was honest with himself it was probably going to eat him.

Jace grabbed several bottles of alcohol off the wall and tossed them around. After the first few bottles landed his armor started blinking as it picked up something, but he still could not see it. Before he had a chance to process and figure out where whatever attacked him was, the glass of some of the broken bottles he had thrown cracked and he threw a bottle. It exploded in the air and covered something in alcohol.

A moment later, faster than even he could react, he was pinned up against the wall. Something was holding his arms and legs. Then it started to reveal itself as he pushed against the creature. It was a giant mouth with tentacles. He could assume it had more of a body or even that it had an actual body that was not visible.

He slowly pulled his arms together as he unsheathed his knife before stabbing it through one of the tentacles. He must have gotten something because the creature backed off long enough for Jace to move towards one of the metal cups the people who used this bar clearly drank from. He ran the back of his knife across it, creating sparks that flew towards a puddle of alcohol.

Not even a moment later the whole place lit up like a tinder box. The moment it did he opened his suit’s breathing systems again. The moment he did, he could smell it burning. Spores. This ugly ass critter was using spores to control what his mind saw and did not see.

He called it ugly because he could see it now. It looked like a massive log of shit with green tentacles coming off the side of it, using them both to move around and to shuffle food into its massive mouth that had a grinding row of teeth. Although the slime coming off it made him think of it as shit rather than just a log.

Although now it was on fire and apparently as flammable as the spores. Thinking of the flames, Jace realized he was choking and as much as he wanted to kill this thing. He had to think more of his survival. So he activated his suit’s closed breathing circuit again before jumping out through a window and into the street where the fog had dispersed.

Now that he was outside and not high on spores. He could see all of them. The literally glowing purple and red mushrooms that were growing on the buildings and along the mountain side. The mushrooms and that creature probably lived in symbiosis. But the fire that was quickly spreading would take care of that.

Not that he would stick around to see it.

He ran forward, going up the road. As he did he noticed the mushrooms became less noticeable and his suit which was now picking up on the spores, also noticed the air was less filled with the spores. He slowed down as he was completely out of the village.

He looked down at the village and saw it was burning. A moment later he felt something coming up his esophagus and he quickly pulled off his helmet to throw up all over the dusty road he was standing upon. He fell to his knees as he threw up his insides.

Green liquids mixed with his blood spilled all over the ground. "Fuck!" He cursed once he was done. His mouth tasted like metal and spoiled meat. He stumbled to stand and sighed as he noticed the fire had only gotten bigger. He summoned his box of goods and pulled out a bottle of water and a towel from it.

He swirled the water in his mouth before spitting it out and then wiped his mouth. Once he was done he tossed the towel on the ground before downing the rest of the water and discarding the bottle. He then dematerialized the box before continuing to walk up the mountain as he summoned his Wisp Rifle and put his helmet back on.

If all of the occupants from the Mortella ship were like that then he was going to have far more difficulty crossing the Western Continent then he initially thought he was.