Laurence woke back up to the noise of their loud bickering.
"When did I fall asleep...What the hell is even the time?"
Just as they remembered it, the entire cavern was pitch black. Not a single source of light peeked out to indicate whether it was dawn or noon or dusk or midnight, and how many stalling hours they had left to live. Kade stood up from their campfire benches and approached him.
"I'm not sure, though I couldn't fit in a single minute of sleep, a night has probably passed by now," Kade responded,
All of them looked disheveled like they'd been through hell and back. Shivering in the freezing empty caverns as the constant sound of the machine wailed from behind. The crumpled unfinished map was set on a block of sandstone, Kade mapping out more while they were asleep.
"What the fuck was that dead-brained king thinking when he sent us down here with nothing in our hands?" Liam complained,
"I'm sure he has his reasons, Yharim has a reason for everything," Kade replied, "Anyway, Liam, Taph, and Vulcan, get the map and draw some more, I'll start digging."
Kade grabbed Laurence and the two headed to the dig site. The arena was surrounded by patches of wet sand and trickling streams of dirty water. It was pushed to the corner of the cavern, directly at the wall. Kade stomped one boot down on the wet sand, sinking down a tiny bit.
"Well, the good news is that the ground here is pretty soft, but still we'll most likely die before we reach it, I'm already getting migraines. Here, you take my blade and start shoveling."
Kade signaled his Grand Guardian down in mystic light and handed the huge sword to him. Kade's arm morphed into an amorphous mass and then shaped itself into a pickaxe form, striking the rock with might. Laurence quickly came to help, piercing the blade into the softer stones and shoveling the mounds of sand. A few minutes passed they achieved only a foot deep, with the horrible conditions they could barely make any progress. In the darkness with barely a single spark of light, the two arched their arms up and slammed their tools down, again, and again, and again. Laurence had his skin wrinkled and desaturated from the dryness and Kade so dehydrated he couldn't even sweat, just counting every strike on the rock.
"This is fucking horrible," The man said with his joints rusted and his bones aching, "I'd rather be stabbed in the waist than stay here any longer.."
Kade didn't respond, his pace slowing down with every swing. Laurence stared at him for a second while shoveling up more rubble. He noticed all of Kade's limbs were constantly twitching. Kade slowly sat down on the edge of the hole they'd made and raised one forearm to his face. Both arms were marked and plotted with pink Hallow blotches. Suddenly, a wheezing cough erupted from him as he scrunched together. The cough lasted a couple of seconds before ending with a large choking gag. Below him, a drop of blood slattered into the whole. Kade raised out his palm to find a mound of clotted blood sitting on his hand, trickling down.
"We're not gonna last much longer..." Said Kade in a gravelly voice, "There's too much stuff in the air, any more heavy breathing can severely damage our lungs."
More blood reeked out from the cloth over Kade's eye sockets. Laurence quickly untied the cloth and wiped it away.
"What do I do?! Are you gonna be okay?" Said Laurence in a panic,
"Take me back to the camp...breathe slowly, We need to destroy that thing now..."
Laurence walked Kade back to the camp; their legs felt like crumbling with each wearily step. Every step they took slow inhales and exhales, the grains in the air grinding across the walls of their lungs. After several minutes they finally dragged themselves back to the camp, where Laurence sat Kade next to the fragmented pillar. Soon after the others treaded back, all looking the same way.
"There's no use..." Said Liam, "Kill him now."
"No...Laurence doesn't die for this...There has to be another way..."
"Yea what?! You really think we can kill that thing in this condition? ARE YOU INSANE?!"
"I will not let you kill him, he's a member equal of worth as all of you."
"So what do we do then?! Either we kill Laurence and the rest of us survive or we all die of dehydration!."
"..."
"Even though I barely know him, even though he destroyed an entire city, I won't let Laurence die. SO YES, I'D RATHER ALL OF US DIE THAN KILL ONE OF US WITHOUT THEIR CONSENT." Kade shouted in conclusion.
Silence filled the room, the two staring intently at each other. The ground quakes under their feet, the machine constantly boreing. Dust clouds drift across them as Laurence wipes some of the blood off Kade's face. Liam's hands twitched toward his gun holster as the others watched in suspense. Suddenly Liam slid out a gold-lined magnum and napped down the trigger befor-
*(BANG)*
The bullet razed across Laurence's right horn and knocked away a chunk of flesh. Kade immediately sprung up and stood in front of Laurence when Liam pulled down the trigger again. The round pierced into his waist as he collapsed onto the ground, coughing out more clot blood. Liam stared with blank expression as Laurence rushed up to check the wound. A red stream ran down into the soil. Taph and Vulcan stood still and watched everything stir with no action.
Kade layed on the floor, blocking his wound. The man sat on one of the sandstone cubes and slammed his head onto his knees. He ran one finger across the blown chunk on his horn and stared at the blood on his fingertip, then smeared it on the stone.
"Laurence will not die," Kade said, "Not even if we all perish,"
Liam beamed at Laurence in anger. Laurence clenched his pants and let out a large sign before standing up.
"Alright, I've had enough of this dumbass bullshit. I'M FUCKING BORED!"
Laurence's veins glowed bright purple as slits formed from his fingertips. Like the fire of a shotgun, an array of tentacles shot out each finger and grappled all the way to the top of the capital building. The group did nothing but watch as the cyan lines pulled him straight up there in the blink of an eye. Releasing the tentacles, Laurence dove right into the abyssal chasm, his withered cape flapping furiously in the wind. The only light that waited for him was the solemn violet glow of the machine below, like thousands of eyes scanning as he descended deeper and deeper. Its rusted mechanical wails echoed louder and louder, as the stone walls around him quaked maliciously. He swung his tentacles down and armed them like beastly talons. He struck down on its hallowed shell like a raging comet, digging his tentacles right into one of the lights.
"ʰᵉʰᵉ...I knew you were still here..." Wailed the machine's voices, "I WON'T LET YOU ESCAPE!"
Like a hammer down to the steel, the impact fragmented the metal and sent shockwaves screaming out the chasm. The machine roared furiously and began to squirm as if the ground was uprooting itself. This quickly sent him tumbling into the metal braces of its many segments, skinning off strips of his muscle. Laurence let out another batch of tentacles which etched deep marks across its shell and pierced into the circuitry. The voices wailed, as if they felt the damage as pain, and shook uncontrollably. Laurence tore apart the circuits and knocked out the bracings, to which a probe launched out the socket, blasting a mark across his leg. He clenched it down and smashed it into pieces, bits of scrap flying away.
The entire body twisted in position and sent Laurence to slide from one end to another. Clumps of rubble fell from the ceilings as the machine dug its head out of the shadows. A giant violet visor sat on top of two enlarged mandibles, taunting a world-devouring hole of a mouth. Its robotic features resembled nothing but uncanny as it watched him before charging at full speed, grinding him up the tunnel back to the ruins. First, only a small quake to the group above, next the mechanical serpent ruptured out of the rock, like a cyst bursting out of your skin. Millions of slags of limestone were sent colliding to the cavern ceiling, then storming down like rainfall. The Destroyer has awoken, screeching violently as Laurence hangs over its head.
His tentacles rimmed themselves across the armor, shedding away chunk after chunk. The Destroyer rattles and rams itself at the walls, sending waves upon waves of landslides down the ruins, smashing apart entire towers like stacked cans. Kade ushered the others to run farther away from the menace, reaching the chasm entrance before the machine began rummaging through the broken buildings, its entire body curling around the city in a chokehold. Laurence skipped across its segments like a speeding engine and punctured a gaping wound into its shell. Motor oil spewed out in gory loads and drenched him in black.
With his eyes bloodshot, Laurence clawed through the circuitry like festering maggots over a cut and ate away at the Destroyer's insides. It wailed and wailed in pure agonizing pain as he voraciously sawed through the segment. A barrage of micro-missiles jettisoned out the serpent's side and homed toward him, yet did nothing. As if he couldn't feel the pain, his own skin sizzling off, Laurence kept ripping and shredding until the final pieces were cut. The Destroyer fleed, half its body chopped right off, leaving a lifeless husk surrounding the ruins. He did not stop. Even managing to fracture apart several layers of metal Laurence bolted back up immediately. A small, barely bearable chuckle escaped him, quickly escalating into laughter, vicious, maniacal laughter. A psychotic grin spanned behind his mandibles as Laurence stuck again like lightning.
"Pathetic...I've gone through hell and back over the last month...AND THIS IS ALL YOU CAN OFFER?!" He spoke vividly.
The Destroyer hurdled up its head and let out a roar. With oil drenched all over him made Laurence appeared nothing but a shadow dancing in the dark, occasionally lit by its indigo lights. It moved what was left of its body in a wave-like pattern, tilting itself up like a pole. Bright flashes momentarily erupt from its sides, each one letting out a large creaking snap. faint blinking red peered around him in a swarm. He pinched his eyes and realized a grid metal hull fixed onto the lights, slowing drifting down. The blinking fastened as Laurence stumbled away, catching his sleeve over the segment hooks. The mines detonated like fireworks, sparking blazing flashes and pelting metal shrapnel into every space within the vicinity. Shards dug into his thighs and back like bullets. Knocking him to the ground.
He quickly gets back up after a few seconds. He expected the pain to be immense, yet only a mild ache in his bones before it ceased. He dusted the first away and charged right back. The Destroyer faced him head-on, gaping open its mouth to twice its size, and pulsed right to it. Laurence hooked his arm and swung the tentacles like a whip, dealing right onto its side. It struck like a hammer to a gong, the blighted noise rang through their ears as the metal shells shattered away in a wave. Laurence beamed the tentacles upright into sturdy pillars, raising him up dozens of feet above the serpent. There he leaped down, arching his tentacles down back into talons. Once he stuck down he sent them right down but once in contact, they slobbered down and limply fell.
What?! What happened? WORK! Laurence thought.
He tried once again, tightening his muscles, yet they still were as soft as gelatin. Cracking aches and stinging pains arose from all over, overwhelming him instantly. He felt like flopping away like all his bones were removed. Eyesight became grainy and dark. The Destroyer charged with full speed as the last thing he saw was its singular eye frigid in place.
An agonizing burning feeling arose from his stomach, metal puncturing through his spine as he was slowly lifted into the air.