I do not own Destiny or any of its characters.
Second Try
Hunter glared at Zavala as they stood around the altar that hid the entrance to the Pit of Heresy. Then, he walked forward, setting his hand on the altar. The altar and the ground around it shone green before vanishing, allowing Hunter to fall. He waited until he was almost at the bottom of the first drop, falling past the metal supports they'd used the first time, then broke his momentum with a pulse of Light energy, landing lightly at the bottom. Cayde dropped after him, also bypassing the supports while Zavala and Ikora used them to descend more carefully. As the two of them reached the bottom, they instantly raised their guns toward the passage, only for Hunter to start down it, not even having his weapons out yet. Cayde followed suit, also not drawing his gun yet. Zavala and Ikora glanced at each other, then followed the two Hunters through the caves and deeper into the pit. Finally, Hunter stopped as he reached the top of the tower he and the other twenty nine Guardians had deployed from the last time, staring down at the towers jutting up from the cliff.
"You never made it past this chamber, right?" Cayde asked.
"Yeah," Hunter said, drawing his new Auto Rifle. "The tower with the 'A' looking symbol over it is our first stop. There will be three symbols inside of it, along with a giant, nearly-indestructible Knight with a sword, that tell us where to go next. The towers have guardians that my Ghost said are tied to a type of Hive sealing magic that keeps the passage deeper in hidden."
"So we have to kill these Hive guardians?" Zavala asked.
"You're welcome to ask one to dinner if you'd prefer," Hunter said sarcastically. "After we kill the Knight with the sword, take his weapon. It's ridiculously powerful, so it'll be useful against the guardians."
The Vanguard nodded and Hunter leapt from the tower, opening fire on the Hive guarding the first tower as he fell. All of the normal type of Hive dropped quickly, and as he landed, Cayde landed beside an enhanced Acolyte, pressing the Ace of Spades to its head and firing, killing it instantly.
"I want one like that," Hunter said.
Cayde chuckled. "I'll see what I can do once we get home, but no promises."
Just then, an enhanced knight stepped out behind Cayde, raising it's Boomer, only for Hunter to hurl a knife charged with all the Arc energy he could muster into its face, sending it staggering backward before the knife exploded, killing it. Cayde nodded and they turned to the door, Hunter putting his Auto Rifles away and drawing his Hand Cannons, having kept only his Mos Ultima from before, now holding it in his right hand and the new one he'd been given, which Cayde had called a highly customized Hawkmoon, in his left. The two of them walked into the tower, Zavala and Ikora just behind them. As they entered, a pair of the massive, glowing Knights charged at them from the far side of the room, both of them opening fire on them as they scattered, one Knight following Cayde and the other following Hunter, Zavala and Ikora opening fire on the Knights as well. As Hunter's guns ran dry, he hurled them into the air, the cylinders out so that the empty ones fell out. He pulled a reload for each from his ammo belt and caught the guns, reloading them and swinging the cylinders back into place before beginning to fire again just as Ikora had to reload her Burst Rifle. When Hunter's pistols ran dry again, he holstered them, then charged. The Knight slashed at him but he spun out of the way, drawing his longer knife and drove it into the Knight's leg. It fell to that knee less than a second after he ripped the knife back out and he spun, driving it into the Knight's face, the Knight erupting into green flames and burning away to ash in seconds, leaving its sword, which Hunter picked up. He rested it on his shoulder as he reloaded his Hand Cannons, checking the symbols on the far wall as Cayde finally finished off his own Knight. The symbols were the same.
"That wasn't too bad," Cayde said, reloading the Ace of Spades. "Where to next?"
Hunter nodded at the symbols. "I'll head to the one that looks like Ice Cream. You three head for the one that looks like a hamburger. There's one of those floating orbs inside that I think is the guardian of the tower, but there are probably Ogres in it as well. Cayde, if you hold the sword like you're blocking another blade, it'll form a barrier that can bounce Ogre blasts back at them. It'll probably do the same with the orb. Your bullets will not be enough to destroy the Ogres, and the orb is unable to be damaged by anything but its own blasts."
"How do you know that?" Zavala asked.
"Because I accidentally stumbled on it on the way out," Hunter said. "I found the other guardian, too, so I know that all four of us are going together for that one."
The others nodded and they all left the tower, separating and carefully heading for the towers he'd told them to. Hunter moved quickly, reaching the tower within a matter of minutes, killing the Ogre guarding the outside of the tower by dropping at it from above and decapitating it, then used the crescents the sword sent out when he slashed to kill all of the lesser Hive soldiers around him. Then, he turned to the door.
"I never even learned your name," Hunter said, seeing the Titan's corpse inside, his machine gun on the ground beside him. "This time, things will end differently."
He walked into the tower calmly, the darkness swallowing him.
"Be careful," his Ghost said, not appearing, given what happened to the Warlock last time.
"I'll be fine," Hunter said. "I'm too angry to die."
Thralls began to swarm out of the darkness around him and he leapt into the air, hurling the sword into the air before hurling a pair of massive fans of Solar knives into the Thralls, the knives slaughtering them all before Hunter caught the sword and landed, instantly forming the sword's barrier in time for the Knight guarding the tower to slam his sword into it, seeming to be glaring at Hunter as his sword pressed against the barrier for a moment. Hunter let the barrier fade and stepped out of the way of the blade, slashing, only for his sword to slam into the Knight's shield, cracking it but not getting through. Hunter narrowed his eyes, stepping aside from another slash and slamming his blade into the shield again. He avoided another slash and struck again. The Knight's sword tore across Hunter's barrier before he struck again. The Knight began to back away, cracks spiderwebbing across its shield, only for Hunter to pursue it, striking again and again and again. Strike after strike crashed into the shield, the Knight's own strikes either being avoided or blocked by Hunter's barrier. Then, finally, the Knight's shield all but exploded under a strike more powerful than the rest. The Knight's shield arm spun away and the Knight staggered away before Hunter jumped, slashing downward as he descended, the light glowing from the sword swelling brightly. Then, the sword smashed down through the Knight's sword, tearing into him before releasing a pulse of green energy, blasting the Knight into ash instantly. Hunter looked up at the symbol on the wall opposite the door as the light faded from it. He looked down at the sword as it crumbled to ash in his hands.
"You did it," the Ghost said. "You avenged him."
"Good," Hunter said, shaking his head as his eyes burned for a moment before the darkness flared red, brightening until he could see.
He chalked it up to his SIVA acting up again and walked to the Titan, picking up his heavily damaged Machine Gun and attaching it to the back of his waist before having his Ghost store the Titan's helmet and the remains of his Ghost, knowing he couldn't bring the Titan's body but wanting something to give him a halfway-proper burial with. He turned, walking out of the tower and looking around in time to see Cayde and the other two walk out of their tower, Cayde's sword also crumbling and Zavala and Ikora both limping but largely unharmed. Hunter pulled out his Auto Rifle and took off at a run, heading for them as they moved to meet him.
Just as they met on a bridge, Cayde and Hunter killing the Acolytes present, a pair of glowing Knights with swords appeared to either side of the group in flashes of green light. Everyone spun at the same time, Hunter charging at one as the other three opened fire on the other. However, Cayde glanced back in time to see Hunter drop a laser trip mine in front of the Knight, then leap over it, hurling a fan of proximity mine knives into its back. A moment later, all of the explosives went off, blasting the Knight apart. Cayde nodded appreciatively and darted past the other two Vanguard, replicating Hunter's method of killing it. Once he had, Zavala picked up the sword it dropped, looking to Hunter, who had his own resting on his shoulder.
"Where to now?'" Zavala asked.
"Down there," Hunter said, pointing to a tower below them, one with a spider-like symbol above it.
Zavala nodded, turning to look for a path down, only for Hunter to drop off the bridge, Cayde following immediately. As they landed at the top of the tower, they both hurled an Incendiary Grenade down through the hole at the top to the Hive guarding the door, then Hunter hurled a Swarm Grenade after it. Just as the explosives all went off, Zavala and Ikora landed beside them, Zavala landing heavily but Ikora drifting to the top of of the tower gently.
"Your method of travel-" Zavala began.
"-keeps us from having to fight every single Hive soldier in this Pit and getting swarmed and killed," Hunter interrupted. "If you want to die a heroic death, feel free. But pass that sword to Cayde before you go."
Zavala glared at him, but motioned for him to lead.
"Inside this tower's the last guardian for this area," Hunter said. "It's an enhanced Wizard. There are two normal ones in there, and one that's twice the size it should be. The big one can only be hurt with these swords, mostly the energy blasts they release. I need you two," he looked to Cayde and Ikora, "to kill the normal Wizards."
All three of the others nodded and Hunter and Cayde dropped through the hole instantly. When they landed, Cayde shot the enhanced Knight, the only Hive soldier to survive their grenades, and killed him, Hunter again shaking his head at the Ace of Spades' ridiculous power. Then, they walked into the tower together, Ikora and Zavala following shortly behind them. Instantly, all three Wizards present opened fire, all four Guardians taking off at a sprint. Cayde and Ikora both chose a target and opened fire on them, drawing their attention while Hunter sprinted around the chamber, slashing and sending blast after blast of magic at the Wizard, which struggled to blast him, paying Zavala no attention as he was slashing once every few seconds, ducking in and out of the pillars around the room. Finally, the giant Wizard's barrier flashed and faded and Hunter spun, sprinting forward and dropping into a slide under the Wizard's blasts. Then, as they ended, he stood and hurled the sword, which shone as it spun through the air. Then, as it embedded itself in the Wizard's chest, it exploded, blasting the Wizard, and Zavala stepped out of cover again to strike, only to stop, seeing it was dead. He looked around just as Cayde used a proximity mine dagger to kill his Wizard, Ikora finishing hers with a bolt of lightning, expending her Arc energy.
"You shouldn't have done that," Hunter said.
"Why?" Ikora asked.
"Because there's so much Darkness here that Light powers barely regenerate," Hunter said, feeling his Void energy finish regenerating, along with his Solar, which always recharged fastest for him. "I'm a special case, since each of my SIVA units produces their own Light, so I can recharge even here, but you all will probably only have one use."
The others nodded and Ikora and Cayde reloaded as they walked outside. Off to the left, an unmarked tower now had a shaft of green light shining up from it, so they all wordlessly made their way to it, stepping onto the elevator inside, which began to drop rapidly the moment they were on.
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