-7-

It have been ten minutes since Milla and Kai entered the Běifēng Mines; the two canines notices a large assortment of minerals and metals throughout the mineshaft. Kai out of boredom starts to list the different elements found in the mines "Iron, Lead, Sodium, Potassium, Calcium, Phosphorous, Sulfur…"

Milla begins to daydream either in response to Kai's monotonic voice or from walking through the monotonous pattern of steel and wooden supports. The hound starts to yawn and glare at her sword. How long are these mines, she thought to herself as she begins to feel exhausted from the boredom, the dripping water from the occasional stalactites did no justice. After a few more minutes of walking, the two dogs hears a faint earthquake which catches both Milla and Kai by surprise, both decides to rush through the mines.

"We need to hurry!" Milla argues

The two finally reaches the first intersection, the intersection was a large cavernous chamber ravaged with a multitude of stalagmites, stalactites, and variety of colorful crystalline formations; at the ceiling of the chamber is a round grating acting as a source of ventilation and sunlight. Networks of railways extends from the intersection into four of the eight tunnels converging at the intersection, the other four tunnels had water running through them like a sort of aqueduct, however it was unsure rather the water was for drinking or sanitation.

"It's so pretty!" Milla says, impressed by the beautiful scene in front of her.

"It's definitely a sight for sore eyes, but remember we're here to find..." Kai is interrupted by more seismic activity; a swarm of bat-like irises appears out the northern tunnel flying past Milla and Kai in a state of panic, leaving both canines confused.

"What was that about?" Kai said, looking into the tunnel the irises emerged from.

"I don't know, as long as it's not some kind of giant mantis, I think it'll be fine" Milla says with a small grin.

Kai raises an eyebrow in confusion "What is that suppose to mean?"

"It's best I don't talk about it…"

"Alright then, you'll tell me eventually. Let's see what scared off those mutants."

Milla and Kai follows the tunnel the irises vacated from, the mineshaft had the same pattern of metallic and wooden support beams as the tunnel they entered the Běifēng Mines from. As the earthquakes became more frequent, small dust particles begins to fall down from the ceiling, both dogs cover their faces to avoid breathing the potentially harmful particles. They reach an elevator shaft at the end of the tunnel, however the elevator was at the bottom level; both Milla and Kai looks down the shaft out of curiosity.

"You think the lift is down there?" asks Kai rhetorically.

"We should go down there."

Kai looks around and notices a ladder "I guess we can take that ladder, It's used for elevator maintenance."

Milla sees the old rusty ladder and makes a skeptical look "Eh, I think you can take the ladder, I'm just going to jump down."

"You can't survive that fall, I'd like to see you try… let me get down first though" Kai climbs down the ladder and in a skeptical posture he awaits Milla at the bottom of the shaft, on the inactive lift. Milla jumps down the shaft with her legs folded toward her body, when she got close enough to the ground she extends her legs giving off a powerful burst of psychic energy, stopping her velocity and allowing her to land safely.

"I didn't know you can do that."

"Yeah, I actually used to fly, but I guess it became impractical as I've became older, so I learned to use my psychic energy to boost me up places I can't normally reach." Milla explains

Kai makes a skeptical face, imagining the concept of a flying basset hound he shakes his head and starts walking with Milla behind him, again seismic activity commenced.

Milla and Kai became worried about the frequent earthquakes that began to annoy them.

They reach an underground lake with a similar theme to the intersection, after heading west of the lift. The lake gave out a dense steam giving both canines the impression. that the lake was boiling hot, so they try to avoid falling into the body of water. Off in the distance, across the boiling lake, was what appeared to be a sort of drill digging into the ground.

"What is that thing?" Kai asks.

Milla squint her eyes to get a better view, unable to compete with Kai's superior vision. She finally get a clear view and sees about three extractors guarded by hoppers, slugs and fire spitters.

"I remember those things" Milla explains "They were at the ancient ruins, where the Kingdom Stone was... well, before it got stolen."

"Is that so?" Kai responds with intrigue, while maintaining his monotonous tone "Well, whatever they're mining for, we should stop them. I wouldn't want to be stuck in some cave just because of a couple of bots."

Milla nods in agreement, Kai continues "Though I guess trying to swim across this boiling lake would be suicide, we'll have to find another way around."

"Couldn't you just shoot them down?" Milla responds.

"I would if it wasn't for this mist."

"Maybe we should see if the other passages leads to somewhere, but let's not forget about Fang." Milla says in response.

"Why not."

Both Milla and Kai backtracks, this time using the lift to reach ground level; they reach the intersection and take the northwestern tunnel, however it led to a dead end. They were greeted with an old lantern that seemed to have ran out of oil, with a large boulders blocking the passage which seemed to have caused only a small stream of water to flow through underneath the large rocks. Assuming a cave-in caused the rocks to collapse blocking the northwestern passage, they went into the western tunnel, across from the exit tunnel.

The west tunnel began to slope down and the two canines found another intersection, this intersection was much smaller and simpler. The second intersection was a round room, about ten or twelve feet in diameter with only four passageways as opposed to eight, the northern entrance was blocked by wooden boards with the following writing: 不要输入：有毒气体, the writing translated to Do Not Enter: Poisonous Gas. The hound and husky decides to go further west and finds a small chamber.

Milla enters the chamber first, both her and Kai hears another rumbling sound, in an instant the ceiling began to collapse above the two dogs, caving-in the tunnel and separating Milla and Kai. Milla falls under a short panic and begins to breathe heavily as though she was losing oxygen, she hears a faint yell through the rocks.

"Milla! You're alive?" the faint voice said.

Milla shakes her self out of her panic attack and responds "Kai! is that you?"

"It's me, just keep going, I'll take another passageway and try to meet you!"

"OK" The semi-scared basset hound responds and began following the pathway. It's okay Milla, you're not going to lose oxygen, you're going to be alright, she thought to herself It already been an hour, I need to hurry. I need to be brave.

Milla starts to dwell deeper into the mineshaft, the familiar sound of water drops and seismic disturbances echoes throughout the mines, leaving her uneasy. Every sound she hears causes a reflex that makes her raise her katana in defense, her sensitive ears hear the individual soundwaves of the faint and subtle sounds of the underground passages, the echoes leaving a chill down her spine and the small earthquakes causing her heart to race. After another fifteen minutes of walking she sees someone laying on her side, she runs towards the person and recognizes Fang.

Milla drags the unconscious tibetan wolf and with all her strength sits the wolf against the wall. Milla looks through her backpack and grabs a canteen There's only a few sips left, she thought giving some water to Fang. After another fifteen minutes the wolf begins to move, she slowly open her eyes and sees a familiar face, however she wasn't seeing Milla's face; the face she saw was a shy, tibetan wolf girl, her hair was a bright ginger, and her eyes was golden.

"G-Ginger?" Fang said, while under her hallucination.

Milla responds "It's me, Milla!"

Fang snaps out of her fantasy and realizes the hound girl sitting in front of her "M-Milla?!" Fang responds in an embarrassed and surprised voice "What… what are you doing here?! This place is dangerous!"

"I should be saying the same to you. Why did you split up from the other miners? Why are you even at the mines today? It been almost ninety minutes since me and Kai entered these mines."

"ninety minutes?!"

"Jin sent us to get you out of here, are you alright?"

"I'm fine."

"No you're not!" Milla argues, aware that Fang is lying.

"I'm fine I said!" Fang persisted, the wolf notices her yelling didn't phase the hound's serious expression, but she could tell the girl was uneasy in this setting, "I'm sorry, I guess I got myself in this big mess, like always."

"What do you mean?" Milla asks.

Fang clarifies "When I was working at the mines a few hours ago, I noticed a glint piece of rock, it took me a few minutes to notice that the glint rock was a small diamond, so I followed the tunnel where I found the diamond. When I found the diamond ore, I went towards it, but then the tunnel caved-in and I lost access to the deposit, I tried to find my way out but I got lost."

Milla changes the subject "Kai told me about Ginger and Zhao."

"Those diamonds was suppose to give us a better life, we could've live as a real family, just like my siblings wanted! It's not fair!" Fang began to cry in frustration "I've let them down, I bet they don't even see me as a sister anymore, just some girl who abandoned them" the wolf began to have an emotional breakdown.

Milla gave a sad sympathetic look to her face, she attempts to calm the melancholy wolf "You know, Ginger and Zhao, they've always talked about you, they still think that one day you'll come back to take them."

"Really?"

"Of course." Milla ensures with a smile on her face, "Also look at the people who supported you, the friends you've made. Jin deserves some respect, if you're really grateful then show it."

"Thank you, I needed to hear that." The wolf gets up and gave Milla a hug "I hope my sister turns out like you."

"It was my pleasure, come on let's get out of here. Can you still use that pickaxe strapped to your back."

"Yeah."

Milla gives out a faint smile, the two girls began to walk down the mineshafts.

Kai finds another lift down the southern passageway from the second intersection, as he went down the lift, he is greeted with several slugs and irises, he takes aim with his duel pistols and swiftly takes out every single mutant, he runs down the new pathway heading north, he finally returns to the boiling lake where he and Milla found the extractors, however there's no robots to be found. Where are those machines, Kai thinks to himself, he hears an earthquake, he decides to head back to the first intersection.

As he went back towards the lift at the southern passageway at the second intersection he notices a strange tunnel over at the mineshaft behind the lift. He walks down the mineshaft and investigates the mysterious tunnel. Unlike most of the tunnels he passed by, this one was round, and lacked any support beams and geographical features. It's like this tunnel was made a few moments ago, but the only thing I can think of that would make these tunnels at such a short time... , Kai thought observing the mysterious tunnel from a distance, Whatever caused this, might be responsible for all of these earthquakes, Kai cautiously steps back.

He takes the lift back to ground level and runs over to the second intersection, the previous seismic activity seemed to have caused the gas from the northern passageway to escape into the intersection, the husky covers his face and hold his breath and dashes through the poisonous gas and reaches the main intersection.

Kai sees two figures appearing from the south-west tunnel at the main intersection, he recognizes the two figures of a hound and wolf. The hound responds to Kai's presence "Look who I found!" the hound starts running towards Kai on all fours as the wolf follows.

Kai gives off a faint smile "I see you're in one piece, Milla" he responds "You also found Fang, let's hurry back then. These mines are going to collapse in definitely, we've been here for two hours and fifteen minutes now."

"What do you mean these mines are going to collapse?!" Fang responds in a worried voice

"Something is drilling through these mines, something very big."

"Could it be what's causing these small earthquakes?"

"I'm sure of it, let's get out of this place, now!"

The three canines hear an extremely loud rumble, large rocks began to fall from the ceiling. Milla prepares an energy shield large enough to protect all three of canines from the falling rocks. The eastern tunnel which leads to the Běifēng Mine's exit, began to collapse. The multitude of falling rocks prevented Milla and co from leaving the energy shield which covered them like an umbrella, preventing them from taking the exit tunnel; the eastern tunnel finally gives out and the exit is blocked.

"How are we going to get out now!" Milla said after the rocks ceased falling, immediately another rumble followed and from the ground emerged a large mechanical worm-like drill, the drill spun at an extreme speed, and the worm had what appears to be small lasers, likely used to cut through harder rocks and metals, surrounding the drill of the robot.

"I guess we found out what caused those seismic activities!" Kai yells, somewhat intimidated by the mechanical worm. The worm's several lasers converges, creating a spiralling ball of energy; firing a larger, more powerful beam of concentrated heat directly towards the canines, the laser cuts through the walls of the cavern with ease as Milla, Kai and Fang dodges the attack. The worm began the drill towards them and through the cavern walls.

The drilling caused more rocks to collapse from the ceiling, Milla creates the same shield from before in Kai's and Fang's defense. As soon as the worm emerges, it begins to charge up it's mining laser, Kai aims his sniper rifle at the worm's drill and fires an explosive bullet, the explosion halts the worms attack and damages it's drill causing it to malfunction, however the force of the explosion caused more seismic activity.

"What are you trying to do, bury us?!" Fang complains, the worm charges at the unsuspecting wolf.

"Look out!" Milla and Kai yell simultaneously, Fang dodges the raging worm.

The machine was unable to properly drill through the wall with it's damaged drill, Fang takes the pickaxe still strapped to her back and starts whacking the robot with it. Milla and Kai witnesses the scene with doubt, "What exactly is that suppose to do?" Kai asks in response to Fang's actions.

"I don't know! I don't want to do nothing, you know!" Fang responds in an exasperated voice.

The worm began moving again the moment Fang's pickaxe began to break through one of it's segments, revealing a large quantity of crystals, it's drill began to function and the worm drilled into the wall again causing more seismic activity.

The worm appears off the opposite wall and charges at Milla, she moves out of the way, Kai aims his rifle at the worm and another explosion occurs exploding the worms mid-segments and cutting it down half it's size, a swarm of energy crystals scatters across the cavernous intersection.

Milla aims the familiar square of energy directly at the worm, which emerged from the the south-eastern tunnel aiming it's drill towards her, the surge of psychic energy causes the drill to malfunction again, the worm crashes against the floor. She dodges out of the way, and Kai aims at a stalactite above the stationary worm, causing the rock formation to fall on top of the mechanical worm.

The worm bursts into scrap metal, scattering several crystals and releasing a swarm of mutants. The three canines watch the mutants fly out of the mines through the round lattice at the ceiling of the intersection.

Fang makes an optimistic smile "Well, that's that!"

Kai responds in a condescending manner "It's not like you did anything useful."

"Hey! I did something… useful." the wolf retorts.

"Whacking alien machinery with a steel pickaxe?"

"It still damaged it!"

Milla interrupts "Can you stop arguing! We all worked together to take down that robot."

"Thank you Milla." Fang responds in agreement

A large destructive earthquake began, shaking the ground below the canine's feet with a multitude of rocks raining down above them; the Běifēng Mines was beginning to collapse.