Wowie, it's been a while huh? Anyway, this request was by Csealia, Techno vs the Warden
Technoblade couldn't wait to tell Phil about what he'd found.
What had started as a regular mining trip to gather extra supplies had turned up something truly amazing. After digging in a different direction than he usually did in hopes of uncovering a new mineral vein to work on, Techno had instead found a cave system. Exploring it led him deeper underground than he expected, down and down, winding passage after winding passage. Every time he thought he'd hit a dead end, another crevice would prove him wrong. Glow lichens were starting to grow rarer, bioluminescent rocks inside the wall becoming a main source of light. Techno had planned to only scout out how deep it went, then return topside so he could come back with more equipment and maybe Ranboo or Phil to help him out because there was no way he could cover such a large area by himself. But before he could, he had stumbled onto a large opening in the rock wall.
From the high vantage point it gave him, Techno looked down at a great, sprawling underground city.
"What the-" He laughed a bit, incredulous at the sight before him. "Are you seeing this, Chat?"
They expressed a similar sentiment, part confusion and excitement. This was unlike anything they had encountered before, and while curiosity became an instant buzz in his ears as the voices urged him to explore, there was some caution left in him. Unexplored terrain was fun, but it was also dangerous. Techno hadn't kept his one life intact and gotten the nickname of 'he who never dies' by being reckless. He didn't shy away from danger, but he didn't feel like falling into it headfirst either.
This city, however…. He couldn't go back without a little glimpse at least.
He pulled out his communicator, sending Phil a quick message. The avian was going to lose it when he saw this, Phil was probably the one person Techno knew who got even more enraptured in ancient history and unsolved mysteries than Techno did. Phil would probably want to spend hours if not days down here, cataloging everything he could about a long-dead civilization.
Because that became apparent to Techno almost immediately. Whoever had inhabited this city was long dead. Or they had left in a mass exodus, but that seemed pretty unlikely.
After carefully making his way down, he walked through the abandoned settlement. Honestly, the place creeped him out. It reminded Techno of the bastion's in the nether, not in a positive way either. If he could get good loot out of this place like he did those though, it was worth some bad vibes to check things out.
Most of the voices didn't like it either. They cautioned him against touching anything, something Techno promptly ignored. He touched a teal-bricked wall with the flat of his palm, feeling the rough surface. This was man-made. Somebody had built this. Somebody had lived here.
When he tried to move on, a horrible shrieking filled the air.
Techno covered his ears with both hands, hissing as the piercing sound seemed to penetrate all the way into his skull. It drowned out Chat, though their frantic screaming returned when the screech died down. Only to then immediately be overwhelmed by a lower, much more rumbly noise.
What sounded like the very earth beneath Techno's feet being upturned.
Oh great. The folks that lived here might have abandoned their city, they must have left some of their security measures behind. Whatever was going to happen next, Techno doubted it would be good for him. He watched in shock as the floor started bursting open.
The thing that emerged was as horrifying to Techno as it was foreign. Its large, hulking mass reminded him of Iron Golems, as did the cracked exterior of its body. As if it was made out of stone or a similar material. It was impossibly even bigger than any Golem he'd ever seen, dark blue exterior brought alive by teal glowing circuits running through it like veins. It lumbered, movements slow and uncoordinated as it pulled itself from the ground. Techno only had the chance to get one brief look at it though, before his vision burned away.
What little light the cavern gave him was dimmed to near nothing, leaving him with only shadows moving in the darkness.
Techno stepped back, surprised at the sudden blindness. A particularly nasty magic effect most uncommon. It made it even harder for him to see the creature, pulled up to its full height and throwing its head back to sniff the air. Its neck craned towards him, mouth a gaping hole with nothing inside it. A rhythmic thudding came from its chest.
Then it roared.
If the alarm before had been bad, this was so much worse. Techno winced when the sound literally hit him, the physical force of it pushing him back. The air quivered unpleasantly, rocks loosened from the ceiling raining down on him. Techno felt something burst, blood streaming from his ruined ears.
Great, now he couldn't see or hear properly.
Almost immediately Techno realized that was the least of his problems when the creature sprinted toward him. It was fast - much too fast for something of that size. It was on him before he could raise his sword, arm coming forward with devastating power to hit him. Techno didn't stand a chance to block.
It slammed into him, sending him flying backward. Techno's spine connected with the wall so hard he thought it might have snapped, the tingling in his legs certainly an indicator of such. His head snapped back and into the stone, the initial burst of pain only slightly worse than the echoes that came after it. He blacked out for a moment, blinking back to awareness when he was already on the ground. Shakily, he pushed his arm under himself.
His potions had broken too, crushed between the wall and his own weight. Glass shards cut into Techno's hands. He grabbed one blindly, smelling it to discern it was a health pot, and drinking some of the contents from the ruined bottle. It was not much though, just enough to dull the sharper corners of the pain.
Nope, this certainly wasn't ideal.
The cave shook with its movements, it rushing towards him in an awkward, lumbering gait. Techno couldn't see it coming with his lost eyesight, but he could definitely feel its vibrations. He'd dropped his sword when he made impact and his fingers scrambled around hoping to find it. All the noise in his head blended together into one overwhelming swell - voices and pain and blood seeping down the back of his neck, soaking his shirt into becoming sticky and wet. Trying to push up even an inch sent fire down his legs.
His hand found the hilt, closing around it. Then the creature's foot came down on his arm.
Techno screamed, the bone breaking in half like it was nothing. If it had decided not to move, it would have pulverized his entire limb into minced meat with its weight. But it shifted and reached forward, pressing cold stone fingers to his chest and shoving him back. It pushed into his sternum, pushed his back against the wall again. Techno kicked but he was in so much pain and still blind - aiming was basically impossible. When its hold shifted to his throat instead, his breathing was cut off too.
It picked him up, still squeezing and rattling and Techno's right arm dangled uselessly at his side, out of commission. He couldn't get any oxygen into his lungs, mouth open and gasping and shocks of it down his spine that became worse with each twist of his manhandled body. Held closer, the thudding had grown louder. In tune with it there came a dim glow, Techno close enough to discern it despite the blindness. He blinked his eyes open, forcing himself to see through a haze of tears.
Inside its open, hollow chest cavity, sat a beating heart.
Or something that looked close enough to a heart for it to register as such. The edges of it were fuzzy, the lack of oxygen was making Techno's head spin and reducing his already limited vision to smudges. But he could see this and for a moment was mesmerized by its peculiar beauty.
Then he reached for his belt with his left hand, grabbing his hunting knife.
It sank into the creature's heart easily, its fatal flaw being that it had no protection for such a vulnerable body part. It screeched again, louder. Despite his already burst eardrums, it made Techno's brain feel like somebody had taken it and put it in a jar, shaking it around for fun. He was on the verge of passing out again but kept from it when the thing reared around and threw him off.
He landed on the ground this time, somehow catching the brunt of the blow on his broken arm. Dully, Techno was grateful that he couldn't hear it when the limb popped loose from its socket. A sharp snap of pain and then nothing anymore. Not even the pinprick tingling of his fingertips.
For a few seconds, he was too dazed to get up, even if those precious seconds could have cost him his life. But there was an odd silence that had fallen over the cave, a tension almost palpable that hung over him like electricity in his veins. Techno knew he needed to get up, to not waste his shot. But everything hurt too much to think, let alone move. He shifted.
What he had landed on was not the cave floor, but rather one of the carpeted walkways of the city. When he exhaled, legs twitching in pain, his boots rubbed over the coarse fibers and scratched against them. Techno couldn't hear the sound it must have made because his ears weren't working anymore, but Chat hissed at him over the mayhem. The cavern shook with a few lumpish steps of the creature. When Techno went still, it stopped moving. As if it had lost its direction.
Techno wasn't the only one at a visual disadvantage then.
It could hear him - it could probably hear better than most things if that was its main way of interacting with the world around it. If Techno didn't make any noise, it couldn't find him, it couldn't see him.
When it shrieked again, Techno winced and drew back. It took another few steps towards him, then lost him again without more sounds to be its guide. Techno couldn't see where it was, but he could feel it through the rocks. Echoes of it jolting his body.
He had to get out. The chances of it pinpointing where he was eventually were too big, even if he managed to keep quiet. Slowly, carefully, while biting down a strangled gasp at getting up, Techno forced himself to his feet. If he stayed on the carpets and was mindful, he would be safe.
Except the carpet ran out eventually. The city was a sprawling mess of hallways, but if Techno wanted to make it to the surface, he had to climb back up into one of the crevices that looked down on this cavern. Everything about this creature indicated it had evolved to live as far underground as possible. The chances of it being able to follow him up were very slim. That's what Techno was hoping, at least.
In fact, he was kind of staking his entire life on it.
He'd have one shot at this. Getting to the wall would mean crossing several feet of the cave with no carpet to muffle his noise. It would instantly be alerted to his location, and its speed was still a worrisome factor. Techno would have to scale the cliff before it could catch him.
Which led to his second problem: he'd never be fast enough at the climbing part if he didn't have the use of both his arms.
His vision had cleared a bit with the creature not in such close proximity. Chat whispered about how nearby it was, how it would smell him, how it would kill him. They were both invigorated over the excitement of this situation being new to them, yet fearful he'd end up dead. Whether they actually cared or only wanted to keep their vessel intact, Techno didn't know. He liked to believe it was the former.
Grasping his injured wrist, he set his jaw tight and tugged.
It hurt. It hurt like hell and then some.
Popping a shoulder back into its socket was better done with two people, but he couldn't wait for Phil to arrive or risk the avian coming down here to help him - it would only increase the sounds they'd make. So Techno pulled and twisted and right as the pain felt so unbearable he would scream from it, he snapped the limb up and into place. A gasp did escape him then, wretchedly so. But not enough for it to hear him over their own steps.
He'd been unbelievably lucky with the timing there.
The hard part was next though. His spine was certainly injured and the healing potion did about as much as dumping a water bucket in the desert. Physical strain was the last thing Techno needed right now, but so was dying. He breathed in deeply, swallowing at the feeling of bruises blossoming around his throat from where its fingers had choked him earlier.
Then he ran.
His first step had it screaming, shaking and bursting with rage. Then it followed him and gained so quickly that Techno was sure it would barrel into him before he could make it halfway to the wall.
But he did - he did make it! He almost ran into it even, forgetting his momentum in the adrenaline-fueled rush. He jumped, grabbing onto an overhanging stone ridge and while it made his shoulder sing in pain Techno ignored it to haul himself up. His feet scrambled for purchase.
The creature slammed into the wall beneath him.
Techno lost his grip, sliding down the cliff and tearing his skin open on the rough rock surface. He clasped onto whatever he could, the cuts in his hands burning with it. While it was still dazed, he pulled himself up the rest of the way.
In the crevice, safely out of its reach, Techno laid on his back and just… stayed there. Too tired and relieved to do anything. The voices were harmonizing for once, their favorite song, a chorus for his praises. Techno grinned. Technoblade never dies, indeed.
"Not even close," he mumbled in answer, being met with their cheers. He still reached for his communicator.
Maybe he'd just call Phil to pick him up.