Lemmy
The girl watched as the makeshift obstacle course came to life, fire spewed out of several holes attached to strange machines, lightning shot out of several pillars made from scraped devices Bucket found near the abandoned tunnel, spikes that could easily tear through flesh and break bones apart. These were only a few things that Bucket had placed to help Lemmy learn how to avoid various attacks, while she could heal rapidly, her body couldn't heal her if her brain was too damaged according to Bucket, and despite her strength and regeneration, her body and abilities were better suited to what Bucket would call "Hit and run tactics"
Lemmy still remembered how hot the fires were, how the sparks of electricity fried her lean muscles, and how the many other obstacles did damage that would've left a nasty scar at best if it wasn't for regenerative abilities. The pain also seemed to… lessen every time she failed to pass, she wasn't sure if her body was adapting, or if she was just becoming numb to the pain. Either way, she saw this as a positive! If fights will be anything like the basilisk one, then she would need every advantage she could get, whether it was training, pain resistance, power, or even some gear she could scavenge from the abandoned caravans near the main tunnel!
She looked over at Bucket who was watching her, waiting for her to begin. She took a deep breath of the cavern's stale air, then rushed forward. She memorized the sulfuric scent that came from holes that spewed fires and the ones that were decoys, Bucket changed them every time so Lemmy would have to find a new route every time, she managed to either avoid the holes that spewed flames or on a few occasions, dodged the flames before they could do any actual damage. She felt the sizzling heat brush against her legs as she leapt away from the fire.
Next was the makeshift pillars, made from metal carriages, dead creatures Bucket called monster engines, and mildly unstable mana crystals. Lemmy didn't fully understand how they work, but from what she was told the crystals were overcharged with some sort of energy, making them constantly spew out lightning in an attempt to balance themselves out. Lemmy looked around for a moment, her mind for some reason sped up in moments of stress, something about bats thinking faster than most creatures or something according to Bucket. She ripped a long metal chunk out of the obstacle course and placed it near the pillars, letting go just before the metal piece was struck by electricity hundreds of times per minute. Lemmy quickly moved past, getting on all fours to avoid getting hit by a stray lightning bolt.
Then was a seemingly empty part of the course, Bucket spent over a week just planning this part apparently, and a month building the first few versions of it. It was full of pressure plates, hidden spikes, dormant blades, magic mines, etc… all could be spotted if Lemmy was observant enough, but Bucket didn't make it easy for her. False traps, mines disguised as rocks, blades that could strike at Lemmy at any moment… all at best would maim someone, though most would likely be lethal, to a normal person at least. Lemmy on the other hand could survive and recover from practically anything as long as her brain stayed intact!
She did her best to avoid getting hurt and was mostly successful, but when she was nearing the end, the cavern suddenly shook intensely. This caused her to face plant directly into a strange-looking rock, which Bucket stuffed a mana crystal inside, which would release a massive burst of electricity when destroyed, which Lemmy's face would do… ZZZZZZZTTT an electrical buzzing noise rings out as hundreds of volts flowed throughout her body. After a few seconds of her being electrocuted, she hit the floor as her body smoked from her burns that slowly regenerated. "Nnuhhhhhh-" she groaned out as she struggled to stand up. Her muscles twitched at random as her body tried to recover.
"Do… Do I have to redo the course…?" Lemmy struggled to say as she approached a rather distracted-looking Bucket. Bucket didn't move for several moments, simply looking deep into the cavern as if they were expecting something. Lemmy looked in the same direction as Bucket, yet she saw nothing, yet she heard something moving deep within, its stomps echoed quietly, Lemmy couldn't tell if it was getting closer or not, yet her thoughts were interrupted by a roar, followed by… chirrping? Bucket wrote down "I don't believe we have time for a redo-" They wrote before Lemmy let out a sigh of relief, before reading the rest. "-so get ready, we're heading out." Lemmy tensed up again as she finished reading, was she really ready despite failing at the last moment? Or was whatever in the cavern so dangerous that fighting their way out was the safer option? She simply nodded as she went inside the cabin to grab some supplies and what little personal belongings she had… other than her makeshift dress and some trinkets she liked to look at, she had practically nothing.
She only took a minute to pack everything she needed before approaching Bucket and silently following them up towards the surface. She was nervous about the upcoming fight, but also excited to see what the world is like without being surrounded by stone walls and ceilings!
—
Bucket
After the events with the mutated worm mage happened, Bucket had put up sensors leading to the path where they encountered it, along with several nearby passages in case it tried to come up. What it saw was worse, a basilisk that was similar to the one Lemmy killed, yet it wasn't the monster Bucket was afraid of, no it was its wounds. Bucket had silently investigated it yesterday when a sensor went off, the basilisk was laying down, recovering from wounds meant to debilitate it rather than out right kill it, the precision, the deepness of the wounds, the trace of poisons, all point to signs of a Kakra attack, likely to steal the basilisk's eggs for future mounts. Their suspicions were confirmed when they heard chirping come from the cavern, no birds could survive down here, and the Kakra rarely let their victims go.
If it was just Bucket, they would probably just ignore them since Bucket lacked any pain receptors or flesh to eat, but Lemmy? Not only was she a living being, she was nearly immortal, she would suffer for all eternity if they caught her, the both of them could fight off a scouting party; but anything more than that and Bucket would be scrap and Lemmy… Bucket shook their head, causing Lemmy to look up with a confused expression, which Bucket simply responded with a pat on the head. They needed to leave, before the Kakra could find traces of them, Bucket hoped they could beat the Demon-class mech, if not… he had a plan B, so at least Lemmy could escape and hopefully meet someone who overlooked her unnatural existence.
—
Lemmy
It took only a couple minutes to reach the abandoned road, giant metal supports held up the stone ceiling as the pair walked closer and closer to the entrance, the paved road and occasional barely functional light made it easy to navigate around the occasional left over carriage or abandoned crates, most seemed damaged to some degree, probably smugglers or something that tried to use these passages as short cuts… wait, where did she hear about smugglers again? She tried not to think about it, as questions like that always lead to headaches, she focused instead of the battle ahead, Bucket said the machine guarding the entrance was extremely fast, but it was rather fragile too, so Lemmy and Bucket would only need to hit it a few times to take it down, or at least take it out long enough for them to escape.
Once they were near the entrance, Lemmy saw a bright lighter, it glowed brighter than any bioluminescent mushroom or bulb. She looked up at Bucket, fear building in her chest, before breathing in and continued to walk forward, when she finally stepped out, she was quickly blinded as her eyes for the first time laid upon the surface of the world. The road was much more worn down, yet strange, green moss covered almost the entire land… no, it wasn't moss, it was something else. Billions of small plants, smaller than the mushrooms Lemmy would occasionally find growing in the cavern, covered the soft ground. Only to be interrupted by either the nearly forgotten road, giant brown and green plants that swayed softly as the air moved, and the giant mountains like the one Lemmy lived under were made of cold stone; the tallest ones had some sort of white powder on top of them.
Lemmy enjoyed the alien sight for a moment, before the calm moment was interrupted by a whoosh- as Lemmy saw a red, pebble-sized crystal fly past her, barely missing her, before blowing up and causing a much warmer and intense breeze to rush past her. Her mind sped up as the world seemingly slowed down as her mind tried to find the source of the attack. Her dark eyes scanned the terrain, eventually landing on some sort of metallic monster, its four legs were long, spindly like bucket's arms, yet ended with wheels similar to the carriages she saw abandoned in the cavern; the rest of its body was covered in some sort of grey yet shiny metal while its back had a weapon attached to its back, it looked like the rifle Bucket carried but had a much longer barrel.
It was several meters away, yet it was rapidly approaching, its wheels caused the ground to tear apart with how fast it was moving, and its strange weapon shot out several more pebble-sized crystals as both Lemmy and Bucket jumped in opposite directions to avoid the explosives. The ground shook as dozens of explosions rang out, pieces of stone flung out in several directions, the cool air heated up as plants burned. The machine monster stared at Lemmy, it seemed smart enough to tell she was a living creature, rather than a metal automation like Bucket; it rushed forward, its left arm rapidly transformed into a drill as it attempted to impale her, Lemmy slid under its legs and struck one of its back legs. It easily broke in half, causing the machine to rapidly back away from Lemmy, seemingly sursurprised that a small girl could deal so much damage.
It looked at its broken leg and simply ripped it, Bucket rushed towards it, but was forced to dodge as it threw its own leg at them. The machine stared at Lemmy and Bucket for several moments, trying to predict their next attack, before Lemmy charged forward; the monster quickly moved away and shot the ground in front of Lemmy, the dirt blinded her while the explosion deafened her, only for a moment yet that was all the machine needed to rush forwards and strike Lemmy several meters away from it! She felt several ribs crack as she flew through the air, the metal monster aimed its weapon at Lemmy's flying body, ready to fire before Bucket leaped up and grabbed Lemmy just before a crystal would strike her body.
Bucket and Lemmy rolled on the ground before the both of them quickly attempted to stand up, they stared at each other for a brief moment, before rushing at the machine. It looked at them, before shooting at the pair causing them to separate; this time it focused on Bucket, attempting the same tactic as before, Bucket however quickly dodged the machine's attack as Lemmy let out an ear-piercing screech which disrupted the machine's systems long enough for Bucket to cut off a second leg, while Lemmy rushed forward and struck its chest hard enough to nearly fall over. Yet, it blasted the ground before it fell, forcing itself to stand up straight a black oil began to drip from its chest; it stared at her for only a moment, before letting out a noise that could only be described as roar mixed with scraping metal, Lemmy's ears felt as if they were being pierced with burning rods before they began ringing. The machine took this opportunity to try and shoot Lemmy with a direct attack, only for Bucket to jump onto its back and cut off its gun! Yet, it immediately responded by grabbing them and throwing them to the ground, shattering Bucket's right arm into pieces before they managed to barely roll out of the way to avoid the machine monster's drill.
Lemmy's eyes widened as she saw Bucket's arm get destroyed, something in her burned as the world slowed down further, she rushed forward, mind filled with rage as the monster's gaze slowly shifted over to her; its arms attempted to raise, yet before it could even defeat itself Lemmy leapt towards it and slammed both of her fists onto its metallic head. Before it could even recover, she grabbed its head and slammed her knee into it, breaking its visor and revealing… Two, humanoid eyes that had no life behind them. Lemmy froze as she saw this, shock filling her mind as she tried to process what she was looking at, yet the machine… monster took this opportunity to force its drill into her stomach, causing her to vomit black blood all over its face.
As she felt the drill begin to move, and her vision darken, Bucket quickly rushed forward to cut off its arm then jumped to decapitate the monster. Lemmy's lower abdomen felt warm as blood spilled onto the rest of her body. She knew her body would recover from it, but the pain still remained. She forced herself to stay conscious as she felt something stir within her, it wanted to survive, it was her yet also not; she didn't know what it was, but fear would fill her mind as she gave it attention. Bucket quickly came to Lemmy's side and put pressure on where the drill pierced her stomach. Their presence calmed Lemmy, and whatever was inside her begrudgingly went back to her subconscious, yet now Lemmy could faintly feel its presence still-
—
Bucket
They had succeeded, Lemmy had taken a wound that would be lethal to most species, but she would heal thankfully. Bucket on the other hand had lost an arm so they'd need to find a replacement in the nearest city, even if there isn't anyone skilled in automations there, Bucket imagined a salvage or two would be selling parts of dormant automations they came across. Bucket tried to prevent more blood from flowing out, but Lemmy quickly grabbed their arm. "What… What is that?" She asked with concern in her voice as she stared over at the monster's headless corpse, causing Bucket to pause.
They pushed their finger into the muddy ground before writing down "A monster engine, mech type, demon class." They wrote down simply, which caused Lemmy to look confused. Bucket soon realized she likely wouldn't know what any of that meant, and soon began writing down a summary as they watched her wound begin to slowly close. Perhaps a distraction would help keep her mind off the pain? "Monster engines are monsters that were lobotomized then had several organs and limbs replaced, mech class is its shape and role, while demon class means it can fight an average demon." Bucket tried to explain, though Lemmy looked at Bucket with concern soon after reading. "Does that mean… are you a monster engine too?" She asked, looking at Bucket's chassis and head. "No, I'm something else, it's complicated but I'm an automation. People here prefer to build monster engines instead of automations since metal is more expensive in these lands." Bucket explained before picking up Lemmy, they had little time to converse, and whatever she wanted to ask could wait until they arrived somewhere safer.
Lemmy stared at the monster engine, its decapitated corpse stood there, twitching as its mechanical parts futilely attempted to resurrect its dying flesh, unable to tell why it was failing repeatedly. "Did the monster deserve to be turned into that?" She suddenly asked, to which Bucket would stare with her for several moments, but all they could do was shrug before moving on with Lemmy in hand; a mix of guilt and conflicting emotions covered her face as she attempted to ignore the painful wound that had yet to heal.
—
Maria
The woman stepped off the metallic carriage as the Order of Al'kun had stopped, the city was full of criminals who would quickly scurry into the many alleys and abandoned buildings once they heard the order had come to recruit them. Yet that was not her concern, she had come here to find the source of the spike in mana in the local area, a mage perhaps? That was the most likely reason, yet she had a feeling there was more to this; her mind raced with a spiral of ideas, from the birth of a faelord, creation of a lich, or possibly even a chimera being fused into existence! Despite how many years she'd been alive, these three events were rather rare, and she'd give up a lot just for a chance to research one of them.
Yet as she prepared to head inside to question the citizens to help narrow her search, she sensed several surges in mana, it seemed to be coming from the southwest. "Hmm… Well, that's convenient." She said with a smile before heading in that direction. The judges and conscripts march inside the city, interrogating both the guards and civilians living there. Maria gave a silent prayer to the dead ones, in hopes the judges shall be merciful to the innocent, and offer a painless death to those who they find guilty.