Team Two missions

Xerxes smiles, "It's showtime!!!" he exclaims excitedly, then pointing his sword at whichever nightmare was the closest to him. He swings the sword horizontally in a wide motion at the monster.

Sonja did not flinch when her finger was pierced by the wall, instead she pulled back slowly and checked it with a discontented look on her face. Hopefully there wasn't anything poisonous on the needle, as she went on without acknowledging it after that point. As the wall cracked and the jet stream of air settled she put her back against the wall, crouched, and leaned around to see if the path was clear. Her movements were thoroughly thought out and specialized for her abilities as a type 1. She remained quiet now because she had no idea what was behind this gate.

As the nightmares approached the group some rustling would be heard in the feeding pit. Further back than Arxon had seen was a small cove out of the putrid liquid. With the movement of the light Arxon may notice glowing beads staring intently at him. However, the subjects were far to preoccupied to examine below them thoroughly.

The nightmares would have more to deal with than just the subjects. If anyone were looking down into the pit at the time they would see a shattered bone emerge from the repulsive sludge. It looked as if it had been split in half and the edges were very sharp. It made no move toward the nightmares until they attacked the subjects.

Arxon dropped the stone, stood up, and took a few steps back as he gripped his SMG and braced himself.

"Hold your ground. Let them come to us." He spoke calmly and quietly, as if not to provoke them any more. He got a fleeting glance of a figure different from the others - something caught and reflected the light...perhaps eyes?..and was that a tuft of fur he saw? - no matter. There was no time to question or investigate further.

With his gun aimed and ready, he waited for whatever the hell these things were to come closer.

The piercing screeches of the nightmares rang through the cavern as they bounded up the cave. They leaped over the pool of blood not knowing there was another living creature there with them besides the test subjects. From the darkness though, more sounds were heard as if these were just scouts and the rest of this pack was just being alerted by their noise.

As she leaned against the wall and checked it out, she would see the path was quite clear. It looked as if the room within was mostly made of some sort of crystal like metal. In the center there was a small pillar like object. It had another hand shaped slot in it.

Xerxes doesn't want to wait for the monsters to come to him. He's too excited! He waits anyways, however, because he doesn't wish to piss Arxon off... The last thing he wants to do is make another enemy. "Come on, slowpokes..." he says, smiling.

Arxon noticed Xerxes' effort to hold himself back for now, and nodded approvingly. "Good. We need to hold this spot...and fall back if there are too many." He tried to get an estimate of how many might be coming - ten, twenty, a hundred...more? He glanced to check back and make sure Clover was on guard. "Any ideas, Clover?"

She entered the room and made her way to the pillar. As she approached she noticed the hand-shaped engraving in it.

"There is more to this world than meets the eye," she said calmly. "something more intelligent is behind this." She reached her hand out again and placed it on the pillar, fully expecting to be pricked for another sample of blood.

As he caught himself wondering if Sonja and Vyvyan would be facing the same threat, Arxon clenched his fists. He couldn't yell out to check their position - not only would it give them away, but the sound might aggravate these little fiends more. He would just have to trust that they could handle themselves.

The nightmares were getting very close to them, within a few seconds they would be able to rip and tear at the subjects. Once there in force they would be incredibly hard to kill.

The pillar did, as she suspected, take another blood sample. As it did this the corners where the four sides of the pillar met let out jets of steam and separated revealing a small strange shape the looked like two cubes constantly shifting between each other and through each other. One of them sometimes becoming invisible then re appearing. It floated up toward her hands and glowed, floating there as if wanted her to grab it.

Xerxes notices the many Nightmares getting very close. "We're gonna die if things continue like this..." he says bluntly. "Should I go crazy now?..."

As he thought this, he heard a wild shriek ring out through the cave as Clover dashed head-on towards the creatures, slicing them like mochi with little to no effort. All the while she wore a maniacal grin, her wide eyes twitching.

He watches Clover, "... I think I know my answer now..." he says, grinning widely. He joins Clover, attacking any monster that comes to him with his sword, slicing them like butter with his Type 6 strength.

Arxon took a more tactical approach, holding back and taking shots at the creatures that posed the greatest threats - or the ones that got past Clover and Xerxes. He was accurate enough to keep their numbers thinned out at a distance while providing cover for the others in the group.

"Keep it smooth, guys. Don't go overboard." He reminded them to be careful...he was starting to realize that he had some loose cannons in his group, and didn't want them getting themselves or anyone else into trouble by being too enthusiastic about hacking things into tiny little bits.

He noticed the strange bone fragment that was being raised out of the water. "What the hell is that?"

Congealed bloody began rolling off the bone as it was raised further out of the feeding pit. Bits of flesh fell from it and slashed in the water, this might alert some of the nightmares to what was below. The jagged bone then moved toward the hordes and began to slash as if it were a blade in a well-trained hand. It slashed in an uppercut then thrust down, piercing a nightmare through the chest.

The figure remained in the cove beneath the subjects, still, but watching. Its eye would glow as light flickered passed them.

"Stay back from that thing!" In a small lull in the fighting, Arxon took the opportunity to shine the light attached to his SMG on it. He moved it over the figure afterwards, trying to see more detail, but he didn't have much of a chance to look as the nightmares continued to swarm.

The bone tore apart a few nightmares but the other ran forward undeterred and the subjects would still have to deal with an increasing amount of Nightmares. Eventually their numbers would wane but not quite yet. Pushing forward might be the best path, they had a mission to complete.

The light revealed a larger creature than the nightmares lying underneath them. It was covered in a thick coat of tangled fur but due to the short extent of time that was given for investigation it was hard to tell what exactly it was. It continued to watch them from within the pit, in the cove just above the putrid blood-filled water.

The bone continued to attack the nightmares, protecting the subjects.

Xerxes is too busy fighting to notice the larger creature. He keeps swinging at the nightmares. "Is this all you got!? There may be a lot of you, but I'm a one man wrecking machine!!"

The nightmares were falling dead left and right, the ferocity of this newcomer and the subjects combined were much to much for the nightmares to handle. Eventually after the massive onslaught of the nightmares, the few remaining beasts retreated quickly into the shadows.

The cube floated closer to them, more toward Vyvyan and began spinning faster, calling for her.

((The Cube))

The cube glowed brightly for a few seconds, giving Vyvyan an image in her mind, a vision, of a world in fire and darkess. Devoid of all life and light, a dead earth. The cube then settled in her hands, waiting for another X7 to grab it, to rely any other message is may have for them.

Sonja watched carefully until she saw Vyvyan reach for the cube. By the time she could say "Wait!" it was already too late. Vyvyan had it in her hands, cradling it like a precious jewel.