The Bacteria

The Bacteria, are a group of enemies introduced in Dark Deception: Unchecked Limitations. They appear in Torment Therapy in Zone 4, serving as the main enemies.

Appearance
The Bacteria vary in appearance, but in common they have orange eyes, purple bodies, and tendrils on them. The Bacteri are the smallest, they have short tendrils and possess only one orange eye. The Bacteri however can expand and absorb biomass, which causes the large Bacteri to split into many normal-sized Bacteri. The Bacterus are larger, they possess two eyes, a mouth with two bony plates acting as teeth, small tendrils on their cell walls, and two long tendrils serving as legs. The Bacterogs are huge, being taller than the player, they have eight to ten tendrils on their sides acting as arms, and two long tendrils acting as legs. They have purple heads, sharp teeth, and two eyes. The Bacterumus are massive in size, they possess only four tendrils on their ends and mainly maneuver by sliding like slugs. They have razor-sharp teeth and two large orange eyes.

In Frenzy Mode, the Bacteria have a more disgusting green and black color scheme and have bright red eyes. A large specimen named Bactereus the Massive resembles several large heads connected to a center head through tendrils, and it is gigantic, barely capable of fitting through the hallways of the hospital. Bactereus is only seen in frenzy mode.

Powers
The Bacteris can absorb biomass to grow larger and reproduce, and all other types of the Bacteria replicate in the same way. The Bacteria can mutate through various stages. All specimens start off as Bacteris, then mutate into Bacteruses, then Bacterogs, and then Bacterumus, which will soon explode into many many small Bacteris. At any mutation stage, the Bacteria can absorb biomass and split into clones. The more mutated and advanced a specimen becomes, the more intelligence it has and the more its bloodlust grows. Bacteria can also fuse together into singular entities such as Bactereus the Massive, which is so powerful they can shoot lasers and use primal fear.

Behaviour
The Bacteri will float in the air and not actively chase the player, slowly wandering through the hallways. Contact with them causes the player to be absorbed by the small Bacteri, which will increase in size before shrinking once the player is fully digested. Their primary attack is that they will do a short charging animation followed by shooting 4 electrified projectiles in diagonal directions away from themselves. When left alone, Bacteri will try to absorb numerous objects in their path, such as vehicles, and containers, allowing them to swiftly grow much bigger and stronger than they were before. The jump distance and stun resistance of Bacteri are likewise dependent on their current size; a Bacteri jumps a distance slightly greater than its length.

After collecting 25% of the soul shards, a second mutation happens and Bacteruses spawn. The Bacterus are larger specimens will two eyes, gaping mouths, and two tendrils serving as legs. They will patrol the area in search of the player, and on sight, they will reel back slightly and dash forward after a moment. The Bacteruses move at the same speed as Murder Monkeys. They would also use their tentacle-like appendages to steal a maximum of five to eight soul shards at a time from afar and move them all over the map. When a soul shard is consumed, it creates a clone of itself in the process. To make them regurgitate the soul shards inside of them, the player must use Primal Fear or Thunderclap, although collecting these soul shards will immobilize the player's movement down. They can pass through walls and leave an oozing pool of toxic gas behind them, similar to those seen across the entire zone; however, most of these can be easily avoided or muted using Pyrokinesis. They would also transform into these puddles and resurface in a different position each time. In the Infernal and Lunatic difficulty, the Bacteruses gain a new attack that allows them to spawn miniature versions of themselves that attack the player, which can be destroyed through Primal Fear or Pyrokinesis.

After collecting 50% of the soul shards, the bacteria mutate and the Bacterogs spawn. They are larger and have many tendrils sprouting from them, eight of which act like arms. They are not usually aware of the player's location, but will automatically know the player's location as long as the player is within a certain radius from them. The Bacterogs move at the same speed as the player. When attacking, the Bacterogs will briefly go into a low ready stance before lobbing an energy projectile up into the air in an arc toward the player. They are, however, subject to the Pyrokinesis ability, which causes them to start burning away into oblivion. In the Infernal difficulty, the Bacterogs' projectiles will split on contact into smaller projectiles, whereas in the Lunatic difficulty, their attacks will inflict the "Poisoned" status effect onto the player, which will gradually drain their health.

After collecting 75% of the soul shards, a fourth mutation happens and Bacterumus spawn. These specimens are giant and do not have any tendrils save for their ends. They will slide along the ground like snails. They always know the player's location (except if the player uses the Vanish ability) and are faster than them, forcing the use of a speed boost. If they get within a specific radius of the player, an amorphous puddle of flaming tar appears beneath them, and an overpowering pack of other bacterias (perhaps from nearby) reaches out and tries to draw them down into it. During this sequence, the player can shake them off by continuously pressing the spacebar button. However, the Bacterumus cannot turn around, so players can troll these monsters by teleporting through them. What's more, all Bacteria types are immune to Primal Fear, Thunderclap, Pyrokinesis, and the Blow Dart, in fact, using any of these abilities will immediately alert ALL bacteria to the player's location, which forces the use of telepathy and speed boost instead.

After collecting 100% of the shards, a fifth and final mutation happens, causing the bacteria to go into frenzy mode. Additional Bacteruses and Bacterogs will spawn and chase the player into a large open room filled with Bacterumus on the walls. These Bacterumus will begin to jump at each other and merge until they form a large heavily mutated specimen titled 'Bactereus the Massive' which serves as a boss. The boss has several attacks:


 * Beam: Shoots laser beams from its eyes.
 * They see me rollin' they hatin': Rolls into a ball and rolls across the arena, ceiling included, before dropping down from the ceiling onto the middle of the arena, trying to crush the player
 * I be bouncin': Rolls into a ball and bounces all over the arena 1-6 times, damaging the player if they get crushed.
 * Bouncy Bomb: Launches out a spiked bacterial projectile that bounces across the arena, before exploding after about 4 seconds.
 * Explosive Spit: Fires a black organic projectile towards the player on an arc, which explodes upon hitting the ground and leaves a large puddle of flammable residue on impact afterward, therefore slowing the player's movement before dissipating.
 * Sticky Situation: Becomes invincible as it goes into the ground, following the player while under liquid form. After approximately 3-4 seconds, it will open its jaws and shut them, swallowing the player alive if they're standing within its maw.
 * Laser Hell: Rapidly shoots laser darts from all its eyes
 * Primal Fear: Leaps off-screen and lands on the player's position twice in a row, with the first landing creates a large shockwave that will temporarily stun the player for a moment, forcing them to take cover or teleport through the blast
 * Summon Bacteris: Shoots a toxic blob into the air that turns into either a Bacteri or a Bacterius when it touches the ground. There is a maximum of 4 Bacteris or Bacteriuses alive at once.

Bierce will notify the player "What a disgusting monster. I would be lying if I said you couldn't beat this infection with ANOTHER infection, quick, pull the levers and release the virus!". Bactereus will chase the player along with all other Bacteria types, sliding through the hallways one head at a time while the player must locate four levers on each quarter of the map. Bactereus will use its laser attack, so the player must not stay in the hallway for too long or they will be fried due to the limited space to dodge, instead, they must corner to dodge. After pulling all four levers the player must return to the boss arena and press a button, in which the Bacteria will corner the player and almost kill them, but a large special container in the middle of the ceiling will open and release a virus termed the 'Teraphage'. A specimen of the virus will latch onto Bactereus with its legs and use its specialized injector to fill the Bactereus with its own genetic material, causing the monster to explode as Teraphages come out to attack the rest of the Bacteria.

Trivia

 * The Bacteria are actually a conglomerate of various infectious diseases and other physical illnesses, created as a product of biological engineering and experimentation.
 * The symptoms of the Bacteria include, but are not limited to: respiratory failure, sheer heart attacks, paralysis, nausea, headache, conjunctivitis, immune system deficiency, epileptic seizures, hematemesis, coughing, motion sickness, loss of appetite, difficulty breathing, fatigue, muscle or body aches, loss of taste or smell, organ failures, sore throat, congestion, diarrhea, and of course, death.
 * The Bacteria are so far the first enemies in the expansion to outright replace the primary enemies within a level.
 * The Bacteria's designs is semi-inspired by Kurzgesaght's designs of bacteria cells
 * Bacterumus were inspired by the Flukemungas in Hollow Knight, both are fast and slide through narrow spaces, taking up their entire widths.

Lore
The Bacteria are a gross and grotesque species with two life goals: To create more of themselves and to eat as many beings as possible. They will go after both mortals and other monsters, which is why the Reaper Nurses tried to contain them and find a way to destroy them. But despite all their talk, the Reapers aren't really that effective when it comes to dealing with actual infections compared to killing men they view as 'infectious'. Pretty soon, the Bacteria developed a hive mind and united to escape. They were both dangerous and uncontrollable, so when they escaped, Malak had to stop a slightly less important task in order to have his servants stop the hive. While attempts at destroying them were made, it was decided they were to be contained in the infection research facility until a cure was found. The cure for these monsters is Teraphages, but they never found out about this and thus the hive mind was left in the facility, gaining more and more complexity and mutating to points where it could not be considered a bunch of simple organisms anymore.