Emma is woken up by her robotic companion, Rider, who pokes her incessantly, acting as an alarm. She looked at the automaton, bleary-eyed. "Oh shit... It's quest day, right?"
Rider nodded.
"I swear, with the money we get here, I'm gonna buy you a voice box, okay?"
Thumbs up!
***
On the outskirts of Mars, some ways out and within the golden wheat fields that can be found out on the rolling hills just outside the edges of the city, set in a mineshaft, twenty or so miles away, is their goal, their quest. Meliana is there first, sipping on a thermis, watching as Emma and Dahlia approach.
"Buen día, hermanas. You got here in time." She was watching from afar, propped against a stray tree that sat across a nearby forest.
Emma nodded. "Good morning to you, too, hermana."
Meliana glanced at Emma with a cocked brow before refocusing herself toward the mine below. "Alright, if you need to get ready, do it now. If you don't need to..." Meliana stood up, dusting herself off. "Then, I'll let you know now, I've been ready."
Dahlia slammed the butt of her axe against her shield. "I'm ready!"
Emma sighed. "Yeah, me too. Was ready before we got here... the walk here was kinda... prep, I suppose."
Meliana nodded. "Good enough. Let's go."
And the party set off, making their way to the mineshaft, keeping close to one another. Dahlia was at the front, Emma behind her, and at the very back was Meliana herself.
Just before reaching the entrance, they lowered themselves, attempting to be stealthy. Dahlia was more obvious compared to the other two as they shifted through the grass, watching as a goblin stomped out a cigarette outside before going back into the shaft itself.
Once they closed the door, the three rushed over to the door. First, Emma tested to see if the door had been locked, jostling it lightly, receiving a small clack in response. Emma clicked her tongue. "Locked."
Meliana pushed Emma out of the way. "Alright, my turn."
Emma and Dahlia stood there waiting for a few seconds before an audible click could be heard from the door. Meliana straightened herself as she slowly pushed them open, the other two following closely behind.
The party was met with a peculiar sight.
Flashing bright lights changing colors every few seconds, lined across the wooden scaffolding of the mines, caking the hallway with various blues, greens, and reds. When they push forward, more flashing lights could be seen around the corner, revealing a massive disco ball rotating slowly amidst a more open area of this cave.
Three goblins are scattered about, hanging out casually amongst themselves, a Warg even eating out of one of their hands. Emma looked over to Meliana, who seemed just as baffled as she was. "A-Are you sure these are the guys?" Emma whispered.
Meliana looked over to her. "Yeah... but... what the f--" Meliana's eyes widen. "Look at what they're feeding the Warg!"
Emma whipped her head around, eyes narrowing as she got a clearer few of whatever the animalistic creature was being fed with. A woman's arm, taken from the hand of the Goblin and torn to shreds by the beast.
Meliana sighed. "Even if it isn't the right place... it sure won't hurt to fuck these guys over, no?"
Emma chuckled. "No, not at all."
Meliana took a breath before rushing to the other end of the hall to get a better vantage point, managing to be unnoticed. She took out what looked to be a suppressed pistol and leveled it at the entrance right across from theirs.
After a moment, one of the Goblins began making their way over, and just as they entered Meliana's sights, she fired. A pop echoed throughout the mines as the Goblin right in front of her was swiftly ended right in front of their eyes, the back of their head being blown open like an egg before falling to the ground, dead.
Everyone there immediately went alert, the two remaining Goblins within the open island within this mine shaft getting up as quickly as they could, Warg ready for combat.
Combat Begins!
The Warg rushed in, skidding into the hallway, and instead of a small kobold, it saw the comparatively massive Dahlia, shield in hand. It lunged in for a bite before being pressed up against the cave ceiling with a push from Dahlia's shield, and in response, the Warg helplessly flailed against her, snapping at her with an insatiable amount of fury.
From the opposing hall, the sound of footsteps followed as another Warg came into view.
A sharp inhalation came from Meliana before firing a shot off into the beast's back. For a moment, no response, and then soon a river of blood followed, causing the creature to buckle, slipping off from the shield and onto the ground, flailing helplessly as it slowly met its end, staining the hall crimson.
"Go get 'em, Rider!" Emma yelled, Rider jumping out from behind cover and quickly making the distance between itself and another Goblin as it scrambled to get its bearings. With one strike, half of this man's skull was concaved, eye bulging out from the spot as they collapsed to the floor, a bloodied, twitching mess. Both Rider and Emma suddenly became unsettled, as if this Goblin's brutal death made this situation much more real than it originally was.
Emma took a breath, pushing the sight of the dead Goblin out of her mind, justifying herself due to the assumed cruelties they had committed against others. She took out her revolver, revealing herself from behind cover, and leveled her gun at the remaining Goblin.
A shot went off, hitting the remaining Goblin straight in the chest. They didn't die, but they were struggling to hold onto life, sent straight into the ground, weapon in hand.
"W-What is going on?" The Goblin gasped, clutching their wound. They rush to cover, trading places with a massive Hobgoblin, a curved longsword being dragged out from behind them.
They cautiously look out to the opposing hallway, switching their weapons mid-combat to a shortbow strapped to their waist. They fired an arrow at Rider, whose armor was too thick to be pierced by such paltry weaponry.
Dahlia stepped up, creating a blockade between herself and her allies, one of the approaching Wargs now charging straight toward her. The Warg crashed into her shield as hard as it could, causing her to stagger momentarily; a new visible dent on her defenses now remained. And yet, the beast was not done, wrapping both of its front paws around both Dahlia and her shield, failing to grab onto her as she shoved the beast off in one, single, violent shove.
The monster slipped back in to attack, Dahlia deftly maneuvering around the creature, simply stepping back to avoid its second bite.
"What is this?" Revealing themselves, a creature wearing what looked to be this more rotund red armor walked out from behind cover, an axe in hand. "Adventurers?" Out of their waistband, in one swift movement, they removed a javelin from it and chucked it straight into Dahlia's shield, causing her to stumble back from the impact.
"Filthy machine." It growled before, in barely a second, another javelin flew out, and into Rider. "Why are you lot struggling? Kill them all proper-like, okay?"
Meliana, from behind cover, took a potshot at the armored man, obscured by the darkness the shadows cast against the various lights flashing throughout the room. The bullet slammed into the amor, but the man seemed generally unfazed.
"Rider, take out the Warg first!" The machine sprang into action, rushing at the beast currently assaulting Dahlia, and with one intense strike to its side, it was knocked away from Dahlia. Whilst Rider and Dahlia took out the animal, Emma focused on the newest threats.
Emma jumped out from cover, revealing herself fully to the enemy. In a quick draw, two shots were fired, only one of them meeting its mark, the bullet ricocheting off the armor's thick plating.
"Shit!" Emma's eyes catch sight of a rifle peaking out. A gap in a wall, right within the open disco room of the mine. "Shit!" Emma ducked out of the way as shots were fired off, all hitting the wall behind her.
The Hobgoblin rushed in to assist the Warg, swinging down at the automaton, Rider. Two slices in quick succession, both missing as Rider weaved out of the way, guard up almost like a boxer.
Dahlia's attention spun over to the Warg, just now connecting to the floor before she swings her axe straight into the creature's hide, blood spraying across the walls before the creature, axe still stuck within its flesh, is pulled towards herself, a fist colliding against the Warg's skull. A sickening crack reverberated out in response, and with one more strike against its head, Dahlia had put the poor creature out of its misery, redirecting her attention to the Hobgoblin attacking Rider.
Something red rushed over at her, and in that moment, the man in red armor caught her attention, both hands set on the handle of their blade as they arched back. "You're strong!" Their blade cut through the air with such violence that a shrill whistle followed, almost cleaving through the girl's shield, arm thrown into the air.
Dahlia quickly pulled her shield back to her body, lowering herself as the momentum of this man's second strike screamed across the metal of her defense, audibly cackling from underneath their armor.
"Rifleman in the wall-- left!" Emma cried out at Meliana.
Meliana swiftly responded, jumping out and firing at the remaining Goblin, blood firing out from the hole, collapsing behind it. Meliana's eyes narrowed into slits, and, using the momentum when jumping out from cover, slid across the ground, prone, aiming for the Hobgoblin's ankles; the room for error was large, however, whistling past.
Emma repositioned herself in the room, avoiding hitting any of her allies, quickly drawing her revolver once more onto the Hobgoblin and the man clad in red armor, both shots missing. Rider, however, was already in the fray of things, swinging at the Hobgoblin in front of them, responding to the man's hostile intent.
One strike met its mark, eliciting an audible crack against the Hobgoblin's arm as they reflexively attempted to defend themselves before missing their second attack, the man dodging out of the way, sweat pouring off their brow.
Dahlia, surrounded, ally at the hip, could only respond in one way. Sheer violence.
The Hobgoblin whipped their head around as they witnessed a flash of steel slide across their face before bouncing off their comrade's armor. Their face was practically split in two, blood spraying out from the wound before the axe came back around, splitting more than the man's face in the process. Their body was cut into segments, right where the shoulder and neck connected, down diagonally across the chest, their hand caught in the process, before splattering across the ground violently.
Dahlia was too focused on surviving to even have noticed what she had done, resting the axe on one shoulder, shield held out in the other against the most wrathful of them all. That man in red armor, who stood nearly at the same height as Dahlia.
The man broke out into hysterics. "Don't you see, girl!? You love it, don't you!? It's in your nature, stained by blood!" For a split second, they went into a stab, switching into a leaning motion as they flicked their blade past Dahlia's shield, striking her in the arm, and then, once again, clipping Dahlia's leg, and one last time, the tip of their blade tapping Dahlia's shield as it stepped back to create distance.
Dahlia sighed, her shield rendered useless as this man worked around its defenses. A shrill laugh slipped out from behind their helmet as something flickered across the armor momentarily.
Pop! Pop! Pop! Pop!
Shots rang out from both Emma and Meliana, but none of them could bypass their defenses, stopping short of the armor through some invisible force surrounding them.
Rider stepped up, fists firing out into the man, but was swiftly parried, kicked out of the way.
Dahlia, from behind her shield, slipped out her axe, throwing it down onto the monster in front of her, who quickly side-stepped to avoid the strike, and in that moment, was sent staggering, a fist meeting their helmet, crashing into them so hard that a visible dent formed from the impact.
Another laugh exited the helm. "Now that... that hurt..." Before he could react, an axe dug straight into the chestplate of the man, causing their legs to buckle out from under them. They were almost gone, but not down for the count just yet.
Their blade sliced through the air with swift precision. The reverberation of the blade echoed throughout the cavern for a moment as Dahlia stood still, stunned. As if in slow motion, she fell to the ground, hands quickly reaching for her face, which was split open, blood flying through the air, a sickening wet sound following.
For a moment, silence filled the room.
Meliana ran forward, jumping onto the man, attempting to dig her dagger into any gaps they could find within the armor, missing their mark twice before having her arm grabbed, then thrown to the floor.
The man grew cocky, looking down at the battered Kobold. He then turned his attention to gauge the reaction of Emma, only to be met with a coiled fist slamming straight into their wounded chest, causing them to fly into the wall behind them, armor concaved from the impact. They gasped, clutching their chest in pain, trying their hardest to take a breath and failing, blood pooling onto the floor.
Emma blinked, her sight growing blurry before blinking again. The gore in front of her made her momentarily still, but the sight of her friend in pain snapped her out of their stupor.
Emma kneeled to meet Dahlia face to face, soon realizing that she had gone unconscious from the pain. Meliana crossed over to them. "Is she alright?"
Emma sighed, hands shaking. "I... no... she... we can't continue."
Meliana's face became pained. "We have to. She'll be fine, we just need to rest and recover! If we back out now, everything is ruined, okay?" Meliana scratched between her horns. "I'll help you move her. There should be a better spot to wait around the corner, alright?"
"But, Meli... Look at her, her fa--"
"It'll be... alright... she's resilient, you know this. Let's just move her, think about the now, rather than the future."
With the assistance of Rider, they moved Dahlia to the other room, which seemed to be this haphazardly made dining area placed next to what looked to be a staircase heading further into the mine. Meliana watched the entrance as Emma began operating on Dahlia's wounds.
After a few hours of labor, they managed to find themselves back to a more stable condition, though, even after operating on the cut on Dahlia's face, she remained unconscious.
Shield repaired, Rider repaired as well.
Emma was exhausted, sitting down on one of the empty chairs set in the dining room. She looked over to Meliana, who watched the stairs closely.
"How are you feeling?" Emma asked her, both of her hands clutching the other.
Meliana glanced at Emma. "Tired, but the show must go on."
"Does this friend mean a lot to you?"
Meliana silently turned to Emma, remaining silent for a beat. "I wouldn't be doing all of this if that weren't the case."
Emma looked over to the unconscious Dahlia. "Y'know... I never really thought about it before..."
"About what?"
"I have killed a man before, but for some reason, today really got to me. Maybe it's how someone died, I dunno, maybe it was the adrenaline. It was this uh... he was a Drow, I think. I shot him right where the carotid artery met with his jaw, and he bled out atop a coffin. It was pretty bad to look at, thinking back on it, but I was so focused just trying to stay alive that I didn't even think about it."
"You get used to it."
"I'd imagine, but there was something about Rider crushing that guy's skull that... felt different, y'know? I dunno why it's getting to me-- also, Dahlia splitting that guy into three pieces!? She was... she was like me when I killed that old dude, she was too locked in, but what about when she wakes up? Knowing she did that? I feel sick just concaving some bastard's skull in-- what about a guy being turned into sashimi?" Emma's face dug into her palms.
Meliana's only response that she could give was silence, brow knitted as she focused on keeping them all alive, eyes towards the stairs.
Emma took her palms away from her face, looking down at a rifle splayed across the floor that the Goblin was carrying. She picked it up, feeling the weight of the weapon in her hands. "Okay... that works..."
"What works?" Meliana spotted the gun. "Fair enough."
Emma's thoughts were interrupted by Dahlia's groaning as she slowly woke up from her previously unconscious state.
Dahlia peeled herself up from the table they had set her on before scanning the room, bleary-eyed. "W-What...? Oh..." She blinked. "Ow..." She groaned again, clutching her face.
"Careful now."
The cut was diagonal across her face, going from her right cheek, across the nose, and some ways up her left brow, now all covered by patches of what looked to be a type of bandaid sat atop stitches. "You did the best you could, huh?"
"Are you alright?"
"Alive... it stings so bad..."
"We still got more to go, think you can do it, Dahlia?"
Dahlia scanned the room once again. "Where's my shield?"
Emma slid it out from under the table, placing it onto a bench right beside it. "Here ya go. Also, what made you start usin' shields, girl?"
"Ever since I became a Guardian," Dahlia whined, sliding the shield back onto her arm and grabbing her axe.
"Wait, what?"
"I felt like it fit me more."