I hefted the axe out of the concrete fairly easily, surprising myself. Did I have super-strength or something? I shook my head, now was not the time. Turning around, I found that further on the path, there was another monster. It had a shield, this time; not to mention it had more stuff on it- possibly a symbol of rank. "Great, just great," I groused. "They have shields now. What's next? Guns?"

Oliver just chuckled and quickly shut up when I glared at him. Deciding to ignore him for the moment, I tried, as quietly as I could, to sneak up on it. It was for naught, as it roared and ran at us. I rolled out of its initial strike, letting Oliver take the blow, which he blocked. I popped back up and slammed the axe into its back, which caused it to stagger and lose the slight advantage it had over the deadlock it and Oliver had. I hefted the axe out of its back, which caused it to lift slightly up (which would've been funny had I not been scared for my life), and let Oliver slam its side with his hammer, bringing it to the edge of the path- which went to a deep abyss.

I threw a rock at it, just as it roared, and it lost its balance and footing, falling into the abyss. Tentatively looking over the edge, I saw it wasn't an abyss after all, but rather a pit with a river flowing through. Had a bunch of those massive glowing spikes in it though. I took a step back from the edge, not wanting to fall. I turned back to the path, finding a chest against the far wall. The world rewarded my hubris with three other enemies camping out to the left. Hearing the click of a gun, I instinctively ducked, just as a bolt of red passed over my head. Oliver engaged two of them, while I hid behind the chest.

I took a deep breath, calming and preparing myself, before I came out of cover and rushed it. It was either luck or bad aim that the two shots it fired at me both missed, before I came within melee distance, and it took a swing at me with the bayonet at the end of its gun. I blocked with the handle of the axe, letting the attack slide off before I spun with the momentum and cut diagonally into its shoulder. I took the gun from its loose hands and shoved the bayonet into its chest. I braced a foot on its chest, next to the gun, before I pulled my axe out towards me, causing even more damage. It fell to the ground, dead.

Curious, I pulled the gun out of its chest and pointed at the back of one of the two enemies Oliver had yet to kill. Carefully pointing at the head of one, I pulled the trigger. I felt something flow through me and into the gun before a sickly red and black bullet shot out the end and hit the enemy's head, piercing through it. The kick from the gun caused me to lose balance for a second before I grabbed the handle of my axe, which was embedded in the ground, steadying myself. The enemy I hit died instantly, a hole through the head would do that. Oliver made quick work of the second, hitting its side then its head and then pushing it off the edge of the path.

I looked between the dead monster and the gun several times, before stating, "I like this thing."

"A bayonet?" he asked.

I looked at him strangely. "This is called a bayonet? I thought that was just the blade at the end."

"Really?"

"Yeah. Could it be named because of that?"

Oliver shrugged. "Maybe; I didn't name them."

"That's fair. Now, let's see what's in the chest." Walking over to the aforementioned object, I opened it. Inside was nothing. I looked around deeper inside. There was nothing. Oh wait- no that's just a rock. "Well, that's annoying. There's nothing in here."

"Really?" Oliver asked, looking over my shoulder and into the chest. "Huh. So, there is. N't."

I kicked it with the side of my boot, causing it to rattle. "Meanie."

I grabbed my bayonet from where I set it against the wall and walked over to the door. It opened up smoothly, allowing us to enter another, smaller, room with another door. This time it had openings in it!

It was a gate. What I was looking at was a gate. What was behind the gate was something to note. It was a pacing monster. Looking at my newly-acquired bayonet, then the pacing monster, I knew what I had to do. Taking a knee, I braced my off hand on my knee and aimed down the sights towards the monster at the far end of the hallway. I pulled the trigger again, this time prepared for the kick of the gun, and felt that weird sensation of pulling before a dark red, nearly black bolt was launched out the barrel.

The bolt just barely missed the head of the monster by inches, centimeters, even. The monster, now alerted by the bolt that whizzed by its head, turned around to face us. It let out a roar, enraged. It started running towards us, catching me off-guard with its speed.

I stowed whatever comment I was going to say to Oliver away and pulled out my axe from… somewhere… and immediately blocked the swing from its sword. The strength it put behind the blow knocked me back onto one knee and back a few inches. Oliver took his chance then to whack the monster. The monster disengaged with me and blocked Oliver's blow with its shield, and I took advantage of that to put an axe to its leg.

Its skin was tougher than I thought, and instead of cutting cleanly through like I wanted, it sunk deep and got stuck. I tried pulling at it, to no avail, but by then I had to jump back to avoid the monster's sword swinging at me. I went cross-eyed as the sword barely passed the edge of my eyes, watching the blade, before focusing back and jolting into reality as my back hit the wall. I ducked to the side as the sword came back up and struck the wall where my head was. Pulling my bayonet out, I blindly thrust it towards the monster.

Oliver had taken the chance to reorient himself in the room so he could swing his hammer easier, so when I blindly stabbed with my bayonet, he struck with his hammer and caused the monster to fall onto the blade, easily piercing its armor and thick skin. Oliver then pulled out my axe from the monster's leg- a movement that made me realize that he was much stronger than I was- and use it to chop the monster's thrashing body in half.

My bayonet fell to the side, as it was pierced into the shoulder of the monster, and across me. I stared at Oliver's masked face as he struck the axe into the ground near me. "Here; sorry I used your axe. It was smaller than my own hammer."

"...It's fine," I replied listlessly.

Oliver paused as he looked at me. "You okay?"

"Yeah. Just. Realized something."

"And what's that?"

"You are much stronger than I am."

"Well, I carry around and use a hammer that is easily twice or thrice my weight," he explained.

"That's true," I conceded.

"If that's all, let's keep going. Those bloodbeads won't find themselves."

"Oh right, we're here to find those things."

Oliver snorted a laugh. "You forgot our reason for being down here?"

"Well, excuse me for being caught up in not trying to die."

"That's fair. Pick up your weapons and let's keep going."

"Right." Standing, I picked up my bayonet from the ground- as the monster's body had already dissipated into motes of weird lights- and pulled my axe from the concrete. Slinging the bayonet across my back- there was a strap on it, strangely enough- I hefted my axe and signaled my readiness to continue.

To that one reviewer who has their DMs turned off: Clearly you didn't comprehend the summary. What you're asking for is what this story is about. Glad you're excited, though.