Guardian

The heavy footsteps of the Guardian were loud behind me. Am I about to die? For a second time? I can't let that happen.

From the sound of things, it seems like the Guardian has no weaponry due to the fact that their ghost was so excited about the rifle I left behind. If this was really the case, then this battle might be winnable.

Hiding behind a crate, I listen and wait for the enemy to approach.

"Guardian, I can sense Hive nearby, stand ready."

"Understood."

I hear the clack of the rifle as it presumably gets aimed outwards. It seems like the ghost can detect when things are nearby, however, it cannot detect my exact location. This happened with the other ghost, they were able to tell I was in the cave but not where I was exactly, otherwise I would be dead right now.

The footsteps get louder and louder, and pretty soon it sounds like the Guardian is practically right next to me. I need to act first, if the Guardian can see me before I attack, I'm probably screwed. If only I could see around corners, I wouldn't be so worried right now. Regardless of my wishes, I can hear the steady breathing of the Guardian on the other side of the crate.

I sure hope for shit that the can't hear me. They're so close, I need to act now. Crouching down slowly, I allow the black bones to compress, I'll need all of the speed that I can get. I can't turn very well at max speeds, so I need something I can either distract them with, or something that can turn me quickly. Wait, the wall. We're in a hallway, and around six feet away from me is a concrete wall. If I use it right, I could probably bounce myself towards the Guardian.

It's all or nothing, launching myself at the wall as quickly as I can, I let my feet stick out in front of me. As I blast into the wall, I can hear the ghost speak.

"A thrall!"

Luckily, my strong body is able to take the weight of me slamming into the wall at full force as I slightly turn as my feet plant themselves into the hard concrete. The black bones compress once more, and rapidly extend, launching me in the direction I jumped from but slightly tilted, heading straight for the Guardian.

Flipping my body quickly, I turn my feet in front of me again, attempting to slam them right into the Guardian. The Guardian seems to react fast, but not quick enough as I slam into the front of its chest with my right heel, knocking it backwards into the crate as it lets out a cough.

The Guardian raises it's rifle, pointing it at me. I try and get out of the way, but the Guardian manages to let off several bullets, two of which find themselves in my right shoulder. Before the evolution, those bullets would have knocked my arm clean off, however, my Strengthened Carapace at third level was able to stop the bullets pretty quickly. Some green liquid oozes from the wound, however the pain is alleviated by a lot due to the Pain Suppression.

Thankfully, I'm still able to move my claws, as I raise my right hand and slash at the neck area of the Guardian. With a slight accidental shift due to the bullet holes, my claw pierces straight through the shoulder of the Guardian, as opposed to its neck.

Rearing my left claw back, I let it fly to the weapon of the Guardian, in an attempt to knock it out of its hands. This seems to work, as the rifle gets swatted to the ground as it clacks against the ground, sliding away.

"Guardian, ready your hands!"

The gun glimmers with a blue light before disappearing. The Guardians hands also shimmer with the same blue light, as the rifle reappears in its hands. I have no idea what that was, but it's dangerous. It seems like knocking their weapon away does nothing.

Before the Guardian can make an action, I slash at them once more, my claws lodging in its upper left arm. As much as I was expecting blood, it seems that none has dripped out. In fact, the only signs of a wound are several electrical sparks where I had slashed. This one must be some sort of robot, that or a cyborg. Either way, it makes this harder as I doubt the creators of such a machine would have programmed pain.

I have no idea where the vital spots on this machine would be, but you can never go wrong with the head.

The Guardian seems to have recovered, as they let out a magazines worth of bullets in my direction. I try and dash to the side, but bullets still land in my stomach and in my legs.

Most of the damage is mitigated due to my Strengthened Carapace, however there are some problems. One of the bullets has blown straight through one of the black bones on my legs, meaning my speed is severely dampened. I try and shrug off the pain as I slash forward twice, both of my attacks landing straight in the abdomen of the Guardian as we both fall to the ground. Sparks fly off of its body as I grasp the cold hard metal with my claws and try and rip parts of their body off with as much strength as I can muster at the moment.

The damage done to my arms starts to show, as it feels like my arm is getting split apart as I pull, however I successfully manage to rip off a piece of their body along with the armor they were wearing. I can see the glowing light in the helmet of the Guardian begin to slightly fade as it lets out some sort of mechanical coughing noise.

"Guardian! Don't die Guardian!"

The ghost, for some reason, decides that their next course of action would be to fly into the side of my body. However, I outstretch my hand and catch the floating object before it can get close enough. My arm drips green blood onto the floor, but the ghost is in my hands.

Letting out a screech, I crush down hard with my hand and I start to hear the crack of the mechanisms inside. The blue light on the front of the ghost turns a slight reddish color, and the ghost lets out a pitiful scream of terror.

"No!"

However, it's too late for the ghost, as I successfully crush down on it, and the scrap metals fall to the ground with a clank. Several sparks of strange energy pulsate off of the dead ghost, however they fade after several seconds.

The Guardian in my grasp lets out a disheartened gasp, and tries to punch forward at my head. Due to its injuries, however, the punch falls short as its arms fall to its side, the light in its visor continuing to fade.

Taking my sharpened claw, I stab forward towards the center of its head. The cold metal parts ways when it meets my claw, sparks flying off of the impact like crazy as the light from its eyes gets completely extinguished.

Almost immediately, a pain assaults my head as a new message appears.

.

[Guardian killed]

[New upgrades unlocked]