Battle III

In front of me, the remaining two guardians began to end the lives of the rest of the Hive, the only few remaining being the abominations and the robed one. They seemed to keep the guardians on their toes, but were still no match for the onslaught of their powers. 

The cloaked guardian, presumably the hunter, breaks off from the group upon seeing their titan friend dead, conjuring a flaming pistol. The same dangerous one as before. Instantly letting off three rapid shots, I narrowly dodge from two of them as the third beams straight through my stomach as I feel my armor shatter and melt, my skin burning off my flesh. My enhanced durability was able to keep me alive but not by much. 

I rush the hunter, the remaining connection to my arm tearing as it falls to the ground behind me. I swing upward, unfortunately, the hunter jumps upward, as a fiery platform of light forms beneath it as it jumps once more, throwing several fiery knives in my direction.

I'm just barely faster than them, however, as I speed past their point of impact and continue toward the hunter. At this point, the hunter lands, and tries to reload its pistol, and right before I can close the distance to impale the hunter.

*ShuuuBOOM!*

A dark purple explosion of energy separates the two of us, as the blast condenses and sits stationary between us, swirling with a purple light. The warlock of the group glides down next to the hunter. I look back at the rest of the Hive, only to see that they've been completely obliterated. Sparks of purple energy linger around the corpses of them all. There is no sight of the corpses of the large robed Hive or the two abominations. I have no idea where they went, and there's no way they got reduced to nothing. If the guardians had that power I would have been dead long ago.

Through the explosion, I see the hunter brandish their handgun with the flame once more. Seeing this, I dive behind a nearby pile of rubble, a large rusted pillar further shielding me as three loud bangs resonate through the pipe, piercing straight through and to the wall behind me.

Right as I begin to emerge, I see three bolts of purple energy spewing out of the warlocks gun and in my direction. I retreat back to behind the rubble, right as they collide with the wall where my head was.

The bolts leave behind small craters, crackling with purple energy. These guardians have more power than they know what to do with.

I look up, and see that the pillars run all the way to the top. This might be my only way out of this spot.

Sticking my claws into the rusted pipe, the metal gives away much easier than I hoped it to; I don't know if this thing can support my weight. 

The climb upward begins, as I speed up the pipe as quietly as I can. Soon, I hear the faint sounds of reloading as three bullets almost go through my body. I climb higher, commanding my legs to move faster and my arms to reach higher. 

As I nearly reach the top, two more bullets ring out, one of which hitting me directly in my left leg. A small pain ripples through that area, before quickly fading. 

I make my way to the top, as I look at my leg. The bullet didn't pierce too deep, but it is a large wound, I'm still able to move to the most of my ability. That's good, I need that right now. 

Peering down below, I see the guardians haven't noticed me ye- *BANG*

I take that shit back. They definitely noticed me. I narrowly manage to evade the shot, but now my hiding spot is useless. They can shoot through pipes this rusted easily. 

Ah... fuck it. I really don't have a plan here. Plus, I've always been better at winging it!

I tense the black bones on my leg as much as I can, threatening them to their breaking point, and let myself fall off the edge before kicking off with my feet, rapidly sending me downward at the warlock below me. The warlock reacts to this however, as it fires begins to fire off a shot from its strange weapon. However it charges too slow, and my claws meet its neck.

I strike near the throat, and to my surprise, the warlock's armor gives away quickly, leaving my claws to cleanly decapitate it. I look back at it, no way it actually died that fast? 

I see the warlock's ghost fade into reality, as it begins to revive its guardian. Fuck no! I'm not letting that happen. However, just as I begin to reach toward the ghost, I hear the ring of the hunter's weapon being coated in flames, as I step sideways quickly. Letting three shots of fire fill my old position. 

Unfortunately, the brief moment granted by the hunter has allowed the ghost to fully revive its guardian. The warlock standing once more, and I see a strange fire emanate from the warlock's hand. 

I thought this guy's thing was the purple stuff?

The warlock launches at me what seems to be a miniature sun, as I spring backward before the ball of fire lands. Running around the sun, I leap toward the hunter, trying to sandwich it between me and the warlock, as I claw forward. Three bullets collide with my chest, but I ignore them. There are more important things. 

My claws narrowly connect with the hunter, as I cleave a large gash into their chest as they step backward. Using my momentum, I pivot around the ball of my foot, and jump slightly, extending my other leg and sending a swift kick into the side of the hunter. 

Continuing the onslaught, I strike fast, not leaving the hunter any time to recover or the warlock any space to intervene. I pierce my claws in its stomach and swipe upward. The hunter's ghost emerging once I deal enough damage. It floats around their back and begins to heal, and I reach to grasp it but the hunter stabs me in the shoulder, the knife lodging itself deep within, and they pull back. 

The hunter is replaced with another sun to the face as I try and swerve my head. However, my face is slightly singed on the right side and I jump and attempt to run at the warlock this time. On my way there, placing around the battlefield. I notice, more of the Hive bodies disappeared. Did they vanish in combat? 

I reach the warlock, and I'm met with a repulsive blast of flame that knocks me backward five feet, and into the knife of the hunter that goes through my chest. Blood gushing from the wound.

I collapse, a knife shoved deep into my organs as I cough blood on the ground and instinctively let out a chittering sound.

The hunter stands over me, its handgun pointed directly at my forehead, as the familiar ringing noise emanates from it while it is engulfed in flames once more. 

A hunter speaks in a small voice, quiet, and feminine. 

"Your effort, all in vain. I hope you rot for killing Grey!"

Immediately after, they pull the trigger, my head exploding from the impact.

=========

The body of the Hive thrall falls dead. As the hunter collapses to her knees. The warlock going over to comfort her.

Slowly, they recover, and they walk over to their dead titan ally, Grey, and kneel down next to his corpse. They weep, and unbeknownst to them, a small floating figure had emerged from behind a pile of rubble. Having sucked down the last Hive corpse of its darkness. It flows with darkness, as flies down to the dead thrall's body, and channels a beam of green darkness into it, and a deep, distorted voice speaks out quietly.

"Wake up, Erebus. Kill your enemies!"

==========

I hear the deranged voice of my ghost, as my mind returns to me, leaving me conscious once more. My eyes open to see the hunter and the warlock kneeling next to their dead friend and I feel my arm growing back rapidly, my wounds all closing and my strength returning as loud messages ring in my head.

.

[Darkness Control 1 has upgraded into Darkness Control 2]

[Darkness Control 2 has upgraded into Darkness Control 3]

[Weak Corrosive Ability 3 has upgraded into Weak Corrosive Ability 4]

[Weak Corrosive Ability 4 has upgraded into Weak Corrosive Ability 5]

[Weak Corrosive Ability 5 has evolved into Strong Corrosive Ability 1]

.

My claws explode with the green darkness with a loud spring as I practically shoot to my feet with strength. Darkness covers my body in some sort of defensive barrier, the sounds alerting the hunter and warlock as they turn around in shock, whipping out their guns as they do. 

Without wasting a heartbeat, I rush after them, the darkness only serving to enhance my speed further as my claws rip the hunter's right arm off, it steps back in pain as the ghost emerges to heal the arm of its guardian. However, before it can do so, I grab the ghost with my other hand and squeeze down on it. A high pitched ring emanating from the ghost as it cracks before being completely crushed with a pulse of white light.

The hunter immediately loses most of its strength, falling down onto its knees and trying to help itself up. The warlock tries to aim its gun at me, and I duck forward slightly, spinning around to swipe the gun out of the warlock's hand and stabbing it straight in the stomach as it collapses. The extreme power of the Strong Corrosive Ability eating away at its armor and flesh, but the ghost doesn't emerge, knowing what I would do as its guardian falls down, dying from their organs being corroded away. However, even without the help of the ghost, the warlock explodes into a flash of flame as their body rises stronger than before, throwing several suns at me. I manage to sidestep most of them, however, some ate at my skin, the darkness barrier seeming to be weak toward this flame, but my carapace seeming to absorb it perfectly. 

The warlock tries to glide backward. I don't let them. I flash toward them, and with the combined might of all of my upgrades I reach them almost instantly, and I dig into both of its shoulders with my claws as I nail them to the concrete floor beneath us. I claw at their helmet, piece by piece the helmet shatters, revealing a blue, humanoid face, covered with blood. A gurgling sound rings out, as I stab them in the stomach and they start to choke on blood. Their ghost still refusing to emerge as the warlock falls completely dead, this time not reviving on its own. 

I grab the warlock by its leg and drag it to the hunter, as I stab my claws into the throat of them. Their head rolling to the floor as their neck decays into ash.

.

[1/1 Hunter]

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The ghost of the warlock then emerges, attempting to sneakily resurrect its guardian while I kill the hunter. Horrible idea, as I grab it out of the air, and clench down, a loud ringing noise rings as the ghost cries in some sort of robotic pain, before exploding in a burst of light, as the remnants of the shell fall down to the ground beneath me. 

Loud messages ring in my head as I hear the words I wanted to hear.

.

[1/1 Warlock]

[Task Guardian Slayer has been completed]

[Darkness Control (Strand) 1 unlocked]

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I look down at the three dead guardians and their ghosts beneath my feet. Before they seemed like an indomitable wall, and now, it was pitiful, but not without thanks. I sat down, and removed all the armor and weapons from the bodies and began to eat. Their bodies were warm, and had a strange feeling to them, as if something was flowing into my body, something that tasted delicious, it felt hot, and sweet, and almost as if I were eating light itself. 

I get it now, this body is meant to devour the light. Why else would it taste so... amazing? 

Slowly, I lost myself. Consuming the bodies of all of the guardians quickly and leaving almost nothing behind, and leaving me wanting more. 

An urge for that feeling welled within me, the urge to consume more light, to devour all of it. Then I looked up, some sort of inward sense tells me the source of the light is in the sky, as another message rings out to me.

.

[New Task Available

Devourer:

Consume the light of the Traveler]

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