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Sorry for delays-

New job taking up time and requiring adjustment.

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"S-S-Sword behind you!" Guiding Light hissed in his ear.

Cerulean didn't say anything, but grit his teeth and threw himself down onto a knee, bending at the waist as Yatsuhashi's sword whooshed over his head and down to his left. The blow caught one of the leaping Grimm and bore it down into another, crushing both in puffs of black Grimm-smoke and dust and dirt.

"Is he trying to hit you?"

Another skittered under the blade as it started to come up and turned on the Guardian, but Yatsuhashi's foot came down before it could try, crushing it with a wet cracking sound.

"N-Nevermind…" The Ghost offered sheepishly…

"The tunnel is too narrow- Get behind me!" The titan growled hotly, turning and yanking his sword up and to the sive, shattering another pair of the skittering, leaping monsters as they leapt for them. "Use your rifle, I'll hold the opening!"

Cerulean nodded - it was a good plan.

As the titan stepped forward, he stepped back and rose, slinging his rifle into a more comfortable shooting position and reaching up to flick his hood off so he could see better. Turning and half-crouching, he swung his rifle around slowly, sighting and ending three Grimm as they tried to skitter along the tunnel roof and past the man. With Yatsuhashi holding the xit, he was free enough to take his time, tracking the targets as they tried to surround and swarm the swordsman.

It was nice, for the few moments it lasted…

Slowly, though, they pressed the swordsman back. Slipped further around his flanks as Cerulean turned, faster and faster, trying to make his shots count. Yatsuhashi fought just as hard, cleaving, twisting and turning to keep his momentum up and his stamina high, crushing half as many Grimm underfoot as he cut down or crushed with his greatsword. Until, finally, one leapt…

And Cerulean's round slipped by it, carving out a chunk of wall feet away as it came down on the man's side, stinging and clawing at his Aura.

The Hunter winced, flinched and turned, shaking it off and crussh it under a heel, and then swinging wildly to bat back another pair of them and then dragging it back along the ground to force another pair back. But, finally, the man recovered and turned, holding against the Grimm easily enough as they continued to come.

"They just keep coming!" The large man bellowed, voice echoing around the open chamber and fighting against the long bursts of heavy fire from Adel's gun. Suddenly, the man cocked his head and added, "Coco wants us to collapse the tunnel! Force them to come from one way!"

"What?" He blinked, confused for a moment as he slid the new clip in and chambered the round. Then, he decided it didn't matter and shook his head, "Fine, fine, how do we-"

"Just duck!" He shouted, batting back a Grimm with a hand and stepping to the side. "Out of the way!"

Cerulean threw himself to the side and onto his knees as a rain of heavy, automatic fire seared through the space he'd been standing. Coco turned slowly, arcing fire across the roof and blasting apart the Grimm as they came, seeing a mad advantage in his and Daichi's withdrawal. The rounds ripped apart the stone, showering the ground in dust, Grimm bits and shattered rock and dirt, but the tunnel held, supported by a pair of heavy struts a few yards in. Yanking a grenade free and turning, he pitched it towards one and it stuck, blasting away a chunk of it with a flash of electricity and Light-borne fury.

Finally, with a loud, painful, heaving, groaning and shearing sound, the tunnel gave out, collapsing in front of them.

"Damn!" Yatsuhashi coughed, backing away as dust and Grimm-smoke washed across them and Coco turned her weapon up, carving through the rock and soil over the entrance to the tunnel, collapsing it, too, and better sealing it.

"Good work, kiddos!" Branwen called out, ducking under a Grimm and blasting it casually with his hand-cannon, letting the momentum spin him back to slug another.

"We're thinning them out!" Fox shouted, spinning and weaving through the scorpions as they came, blade flicking and flitting at almost impossible angles to catch some while other Grimm died under his heavy fists.

Cerulean stood, rifle rising as he added his fire to theirs and Yatsuhashi moved to join them.

"Keep it up!" Adel called out, "We're almost through! After this, we'll grab us some drinks and-"

Suddenly, Cerulean felt tremors rock the ground underneath him and was hurled to the side as stone cracked and heaved up, tossing him off his feet. He pushed himself up one one hand, tugging his rifle to his chest with the other, and looked up, past Yatsuhashi trying to climb to his feet in front of him. The only one still on their feet was Qrow, in fact, who spun, eyes searching for… Something.

Until they landed on Adel and fear wrote itself across his face.

"Adel!" He shouted, "Move-"

Suddenly, the ground around the young woman split and cracked, exploding upward and consuming her in a cloud of dust. As it cleared, he could make out huge fingers, each as large as her, closing around her as she twisted and turned, trying to bring her heavy gun around. Before she could, the ground under her cracked, shattering as the hand closed, and she went tumbling, automatic fire lancing up along the roof.

Then, just as suddenly as it came, the hand snapped shut and withdrew, dragging the woman down and away with a strangled scream and a spray of wild, automatic weapons fire.

"Coco!?"

"Coco!"

"Adel!?

"A fucking Delver!?" Branwen screamed as the other two ran to the edge of the open maw left in the Grimm's wake. He joined them, easing towartd it more carefully and adding, "What the fuck is one of those doing here?"

"Who cares it go-" Alistair shook his head and bellowed, "Coco!"

"Don't fuckin' do that!" Qrow hissed, turning and kneeling to yank the man back. "Delvers are attracted to sound. You'll just get us all killed, too!"

"You don't know she's-"

"A Delver got her and dragged her down!" Branwen snapped, turning to point up into the large man's face as Daichi hefted his sword across his broad shoulders. "Those things take whole teams to take down without losin' people! And I'm talkin' prepped teams. Veteran Hunters."

"There's four of us!"

"One loner, one vet, and a couple students fighting that thing underground is a damn suicide-"

"Alistair." Cerulean cut the older man off, "Is the… Link you use still up?"

"I…" He sighed, "N-No. It isn't."

"Damn it." In spite of his words, Branwen seemed… Unhappy to hear it, shaking his head and fishing his flask out to take a long draught from. Finally, he murmured, "Look, sorry, but… She's gone."

"How does it get cut?"

"What?"

"Guardian…" Guiding Light murmured, "I know what you're thinking."

"Well?" He demanded, turning to look at Alistair but more than sure the Ghost caught his meaning, too.

"I have your back." Light offered gently, "Always."

"I… Have to cut it myself. Unless-Unless I teach you how to do it on your own. Coco knows how, but she wouldn't…" He shook his head and went on, "Otherwise, it will break when my Aura does, otr if you get too far from me. Mine's up, though, so..."

"The link to her should be, too."

"How far?"

"A hundred feet or so." Fox said, "So it should be up, unless…"

"Unless?"

"Ada," he said suddenly, kneeling and leaning out over the opening, "describe the hole."

"The hole is mostly limestone and granite, with a mix of other unremarkable stones." A gentle, feminine voice suddenly said. "The depth is, however, beyond one hundred and fifty feet in depth. It also features no discernible taper point for any form of estimation. As such, I cannot surmise its total depth."

"Is that far enough?" Cerulean pushed, "To break the Link?"

"Yeah." Alistair nodded, standing and cocking his head in Cerulean's rough direction. "Yeah, it is."

"Okay." He nodded, leaning out over the opening and nodding again. "I'll drop down, then."

"What?"

"Kid, that's insane-"

"And it's what's happening, Branwen." He looked up, meeting the man's eyes. ""Go with them, down the other tunnel. Make sure there aren't anymore Grimm. Maybe… Find a way to meet up with me, if you can."

"But-"

"Or leave." He snapped, "I don't care, but pick."

"I… Fine." He sighed, turning and waving for the others to follow him. "C'mon, brats. Lets get this lil' suicide mission on the road."

Fox and Yatsuhashi hesitated, traded a glance, and then the larger man turned and said. "Cerulean, thank you for-"

"Don't." He cut him off, "Not until I bring her out."

"Right." Daichi chuckled, nodding, "Good hunting, then."

He didn't say anything, simply watching them turn and vanish through the tunnel entrance. Finally, he dared to say, "So, Guiding Light. Ideas on getting down there?"

"I think we both know the only way down." The Ghost chuckled, "And it's, er, not the fun way."

"Of course not." He sighed, "Well… I guess it is a suicide mission, after all."

"I suppose it is." The Ghost chuckled, Just, uh, try not to… Die too loudly? It's just that there could be an echo and, well-"

"It could lure the Delver."

"Or bring up… Questions."

Shaking his head, he took a step forward, rifle tight against his chest…

And dropped down into the blackness.

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'I release your soul… And protect thee…'

Cerulean groaned and pushed himself over and up on a hand, reaching up with the other to cradle his aching head. Guiding Light materialized in the same moment he moved, flashing bright Light that washed across him and pushed away the dull headache like a cool rain washing away the ash of a fire. Pushing up on his knees, he shook it off with a sigh and looked around at the rough and ragged, dark tunnel he'd come to in.

"How far down?"

"Oh, two hundred feet or so. Not quite straight though, so…. Hmm, we're probably a hundred and eighty feet down?" Guiding Light answered, tilting back and sending its beam of white up, into the darkness above. Turning back to him, and dimming it enough not to hurt his eyes, the Ghost went on, The Tunnel goes on a bit, and down a few more, but, uh, the fall this far-"

"Killed me." He nodded, "And I stopped rolling."

"Yeah…"

"I figured?"

"Getting used to it?"

"Hm?"

"Dying."

"No." He grunted, standing slowly and turning, prompting the Ghost to turn with him and light up the rough walls. The tunnel was more than a couple feet taller than him, and wide enough for three men abreast, so he unslung his rifle and turned to the Ghost. "Lead the way."

"Of course."

The tunnel went on for forty more feet or so, occasionally dipping a bit further down as it went, but never really narrowing or twisting. Eventually, in fact, it began widening, sides smoothing out until they were almost clean and smooth. Finally, Guiding Light's light glinted off a piece of metal at the edge of pale, yellow light, and he stepped out into a… Chamber, a lot like the one he'd come from, lit with over-hanging, flickering fluorescents, albeit without the lift the other had. More tunnels, half a dozen of them, were dotted along the edges of the wide, open space. Most were smooth-edged and neat, framed by wooden beams, but a few were ragged and jagged, as if the stone had just been ripped apart to make a passage rather than a proper mine.

Kneeling, he picked up the metal and frowned.

It was a length of twisted, deformed metal, crushed to be nearly unrecognizable. But he could still make out the barrels, just barely. Enough to tell what it was. "It's… Part of adel's gun."

"It is." Guiding Light hummed, "She must have dropped it."

"Mhm." He nodded, setting it back down gently and frowning tightly, "Come on. On we go. Look for more metal."

"Right." The Ghost hovered up, scanning around slowly until it turned to another tunel at the far side. "There - metal and Dust."

Nodding, he followed the Ghost and found what he'd meant. A large, boxy shape, shattered and leaking a pale red something he supposed was some kind of Dust as he stood. He flicked the Ghost a look and it bobbed undeerstandingly, sliding ahead and cloaking, casting its beam from the safety of invisibility.

Better safe than sorry…

They passed through the tunnel quickly, but carefully, his rifle raised and finger flexing to fend off cramps. Finally, after another few minutes of walking, he heard… Something. A sound.

The sound of something striking something hard. A rush of air, and then a strangled moan and a deep, reverberating, terribly satisfied sort of growl. The kind he'd never heard a Grimm make…

Shouldering his rifle, he jogged forward as quietly as he could.

The next chamber was wider than the first, and brightly lit by more flourescents. Some had been destroyed, though, casting flickering shadows across stretches of it. Others had been ripped down entirely, long stretches of cable strewn along the wall and casting tracks of it in dimmer light, or even shadow.

But, most of all…

The stench struck him.

Iron and rust and copper clogged and clawed in his throat, and he nearly gagged as he looked out on the broken forms of dozens of people. Or… Well, he supposed it was dozens.

It was hard to count. Almost all of them had been ripped apart, scattered in splashes of red and pink and white mixed in among bits of dark clothing and broken wood and iron. Overturned, crushed and stacked crates had been pushed against the walls, leaking rocks, gravel and ore, all splattered with the hunks of man and woman.

And, piled in neat stacks throughout the room, were… Balls. Arms, legs, and everything else, jammed and stuck together in balls, surrounded by loose limbs and gore that hadn't seemed to fit. Tools had been stuck in some, and rocks stacked around and on others, almost like some macabre art-piece.

"The Grimm… Made the workers into those?"

"Mhm…"

"By the Light." He murmured, "I knew something felt wrong here."

"How do you mean?"

"This entire place is… Void." He murmured, "Weak of Light."

"What?"

"It's… Hard to explain." He said, "And should be impossible, here."

The Ghost didn't seem to have anything to offer him, so he let it lie and forced back his bile, looking out across the gore and mess for… Anything, really, aside from it.

Finally, he spotted Adel, laying in a heap beside the far tunnel - the only other tunnel, in fact, which was…. Interesting, compared to the other one. She was bloodied, limply cradling an arm, and her clothes had been ravaged and ruined.

But, after a second, she shifted and he could see her chest rising - she was alive.

He stepped into the room to go to her and heard-

A loud scrape sent chills up his spine, and he dove into cover behind a stack of gore and ore beside the tunnel he'd come out of, hiding and shouldering his rifle as a massive, bestial, white-armored arm emerged fro the tunnel, grasped the rock above the exit, and heaved.

The Grimm that half-waddled and half-dragged itself out of the tunnel was like someone had worked at making a giant, but only had enough parts for half, and so had crammed a pair of mismatched legs onto it and called it done halfway through.

From the waist up, it was well-muscled and built, with powerful arms covered in armor plating all the way to the notched knuckles and overlapping back plates that spilled down over its rear. The arms themselves were long enough to drag on the ground, and it leaneed on them as it moved, using them as much like legs as arms. And its head was just as armored, almost skull-like with visible joints, and large tusks protruding from where its ears should have been, just behind a pair of large holes in the side of its head. They curved and hooked down past its wide, toothy maw, painted in dried red and mud.

Its stomach and chest, though, was unarmored and bald, bearing its muscle to the world. As were its squat, deformed looking legs, its thighs resting on its calves, almost, and shuddering as they moved about, holding it up.

Even so, it was massive, lumbering, and hardy…

"I see why teams are needed for this…" Guiding Light murmured, "It's massive."

"Mhm." He nodded, eyeing Adel. "Ideas?"

"Not really…"

"Joy."

Slowly, he watched it waddle and drag itself about, collecting scraps of gore and limbs and heaping them up in a hand, then coming back to the woman and dropping it beside her before it moved off to do it again.

"It's going to make her into one of those… Sacks."

"It certainly wants to." He hummed, "Can you heal her?"

"No." The Ghost said, "I can help, but… The Light is so thin, here, I'd risk both of us. And I don't even think I could do it."

"You don't think?"

"I'm new to this, okay?! I make a mistake, and you both pay for it!" The Ghost hissed, "And she's unarmed besides. So-"

"Even if you could, she couldn't help." He surmised, "And we'd all die anyway…"

"Pretty much, yeah."

"Ideas?"

"Not any good ones…"

"Fair." He sighed, standing and turning his rifle on the monster as it paced away from him. "Alright, let's do it."

The round cracked loudly, shattering the silence and shooting true, ripping into the monster's thigh just above its knee.

Roaring, it spun, hurling the gore aside and bellowing when it saw him. Stepping forward, he took a breath and let it out, lining up his shot as the monster dragged and waddled towards him, hands biting into the roof overhead to pull itself along like an ape through the woods. Slowly, carefully, he lined up his shots.

On, two, three- A fourth caught it in the same leg as it got close and Cerulean saw it shudder and nearly give.

He threw his rifle aside as it reached him and yanked his axe from his belt - the thrusting range of the bayonet wouldn't help him here - and leapt forward, under the fist that swing over head. The next fist came down, buffeting him in wind as it carved through the stone beside him, and Cerulean spun, burying his axe in the joint of its wrist, right between its armor plates.

Which turned out to be a mistake - the axe caught as its hand bent back, closing the gap too tightly, and it wrenched its hand away.

He let the axe go rather than be dragged up with it and left dangling, and ducked under its other hand as it came back around. He fumbled for a grenade as it turned, trapping him between the blow and its other arm. As the blow came down, he pressed the button and pitched it forward, sticking it on the monster's softer stomach.

Then, he was hurled aside, Guiding Light's limited barrier shattering as he was sent flying. He slammed into the wall beside the tunnel he'd come from, scant feet from the beast, and collapsed. His arm throbbed, hanging limply, and his Ghost appeared in a flash, washing him in Light that purged his injuries.

Standing, he grunted, "I need an idea!"

"I have one…"

"Yeah?"

"It's a bad one."

"Then I have the same one." He grunted, backing away as the monster came for him. Its chest and stomach were burnt, badly, but it was still moving. "Hide's too thick for something like this on the outside, but-"

"If it were inside…"

Yanking the grenade off his belt as it was remade, he dove under the sweeping arm of the creature and leapt onto its chets. One-handed, he tried and failed to climb, before it plucked him off its chest and roared into his face.

He spat on it.

Snarling, it opened its maw and he curled his arms around his head-

Well, getting eaten hadn't been on his to-do list, but…

He pressed the button as the creature closed its mouth, razor teeth ripping into his stomach and back.

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Dine Guy 2000 :

Yeah, that was the messy part. Lol

MM Browsing :

He's playing it quiet and assuming based on context clues. They don't KNOW, per se, but they're figuring it out.

However on the 'more action' part lol.

The Sly Sage :

They CAN BE, yeah. But Velvet is expensive on Aura use, and uses up her pictures, and Yatsuhashi is useless against Grimm I believe.

ODST Rules :

He's not there yet, but ye, lol.

Red Demon Eye :

I adore cliffhangers lol.

And yeah, Cerulean is a bit… Cautious. Understandably so lol.