The creature retreated into the darkness with the brown glow of the chains marking its location alongside a screaming Sylvie that started sounding very distant like she was screaming behind a thick layer of fog.

“DAMMIT WE NEED LIGHT! WE GOTTA GO AFTER HER!” Steve yelled.

Tanner blindly charged forward releasing a war cry with Steve hot on his tail as they disappeared into the darkness.

I just stood there in shock, trying to think rationally about what the best approach was.

Should I run back and get help? Do I risk going into the pitch black? FUCK! I can’t just stand here!

Panicking, I looked over at Triya, who had her eyes closed and was sweating excessively. Enough so that there were beads glinting in the dim light.

“TRIYA! TRIYA?? YOU OKAY?” I shouted and rushed over.

“mmmmmUUUUARRGH!” I abruptly stopped, as she wailed in agony, clutching her head.

Is this some kind of attack!?

Eye closed, she growled with pain and gritted teeth. She thrust her right hand out as if she wanted it as far away as possible and I could see black lines trailing up her arm from her chest towards her fingertips.

Lines of Shimmering Majik raced up and pooled on her fingertips, then spiralled around her whole fist before seeping back into her skin and dissipating.

She went silent and seemed to be having a standing seizure so I tentatively reached out.

“T-Triya?”

She suddenly grabbed my arm to steady herself and gasped, making me near shit myself and yelping.

She gulped down huge mouthfuls of air before snapping open her eyes.

“Sorry….had…to…make a transaction…..quickly” under her cap, she locked eyes with mine, panting, shivering.

There was an intimidating determination in her eyes.

“Ah-H-how did you..…what?” I stuttered.

She grinned, stabilising on her own feet and wiped the sweat from her brow.

“I’ll show you. Watch…this!”

She held out both her palms closely making a cupping shape, and a small black orb started to form as if 3D printed from a swirl of Majik mist that was seeping out of her fingertips.

Her fingers were curling closer or further apart and she was moving her hands around mechnically, controlling the mist.

The orb finished as thin lines swam on its surface, glowing faintly.

It suddenly darted off into the darkness with a hum, towards the muffled shouting, screaming and screeching.

Nothing happened in the first few seconds, prompting me to glance sideways at her.

She was breathing heavily, peering into the darkness with a side grin…then the screams stopped.

Leaving only the muffled shouting.

The orb became clearly visible and started glowing increasingly brighter as well as starting to hum like a drone with increasing pitch.

It darted up in the air and hovered. Two side segments of it separated slightly, letting out a very startling, gritty booming, synthwave sound as each segment projected a purple wall of thin laser light which quickly traced over the entire room before both snapping to the same point.

The muffled sounds seemed to be getting clearer.

The orb emitted a printer jam noise that ended with an off key chime before two wide area spotlights lit up the whole space. The spotlights strobed violet and red before settling on white light.

As soon as it did, sounds burst back into full volume and what was uncovered showed a grim sight.

About 20 metres down at the very end of the room, the floor had collapsed into the earth with steep slopes going down into the pit, exposing large pipeworks but also dozens of bundles of white sacs were glued here and there.

Is this a goddamn nest!?

The monster itself was shielding its face, screeching, crouched to the side of the crater but it had at least a dozen 3 metre appendages that were leathery with pale fleshy skin and had a couple of long fat claws at the ends.

It had a humanlike torso that melded down into a fleshy, leathery pale insectoid abdomen with thick hair spikes coming out.

It was never meant to be seen in the light.

A pair of clawed arms was holding the chains whilst another was holding onto a lifeless ragdoll Sylvie.

Her trousers had been ripped off, evident by the bloody scratch marks on her bare legs and she had spider webbing which looked like grey cling film wrapped around her feet and lower legs.

The creature's mouth split horizontally very wide as it roared out a saliva filled challenge to the orb as its multiple dirty eyes struggled to adjust to the barrage of light.

The moment of distraction was enough for Tanner to burst out from behind a large crate to the side of the nightmare, in a glowy blur of red Majik, he attacked the arm holding Sylvie using the sledgehammer and connected with a sickening thud.

The red Majik burst to the impact point as the arm caved where his weapon struck. The arm flopped down and Sylvie was immediately dropped to the floor as Tanner swung another hit aiming for the torso.

Steve rushed out and threw Sylvie over his shoulder and started running for the exit.

“TRIYA! GO! RUN!” I pointed to the door. “TANNER WATCH OUT!”

I started forward but stopped as Tanner was sent flying through the air by the creature swiping hysterically to defend itself, cradling its broken limb.

He skidded on the floor with a grunt before clutching his chest choking, struggling to breathe.

It was backing down into the nest hissing, frantically scanning around for threats as it cradled its limp arm.

“LETS GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE!” I screamed as I dragged Tanner to his feet.

The creature was screeching and hissing warnings in our direction and as soon as we turned our backs to rush for the door I heard thuds and scuttling.

It was coming for us.

Shit!

Triyas orb let out another printer jamming sound before making a series of off pitch echoey chimes.

I felt the tug of my insides with the familiar metallic tinkling sound ringing out and my back shields started deploying.

YES! PLEASE CHOP ITS FUCKING HEAD OFF PLEASE!

We were only a few more metres away as I felt the left shield dash out and deflect an attempted swipe from my left side.

It screamed in anger as its attack failed.

The impact was powerful, it made me and Tanner stagger, but the shield managed to dissipate the blow enough for us to stay on our feet and keep moving.

He was still struggling to breathe, gasping and wheezing.

Need to get him to drink the tonic and have Sylvie check him out…if she’s still alive that is..fuck!

The creature lashed out again with a roar and the shields darted into position and deflected another attack successfully.

But this time we were smashed down into the ground.

As I fell, I saw Triya’s orb zip past my head towards her making 8 bit noises, shortly followed by one of Steve's golems going the opposite direction towards the creature.

She held out her palms and the drone abruptly stopped in front of it as Majik pooled quickly towards it from her hands.

As the Majik swirled around into the orb, it gave off another loud printer jam juddering noise and rapidly rearranged, got bigger and wider, then grew out two rails on either side that elongated and were glowing in the middle.

The creature behind me snarled and I heard it smash the golem apart. I glanced back to see it charging right at us.

I rolled over to defend myself and my shields darted round to protect my front and I braced myself as the creature went in for the kill.

Gods, spirits, who ever the fuck is listening, please don’t let me die!

The orb blasted out an echoey chime that rapidly increased in pitch.

!!!!!!

I shut my eyes as the monster smashed into my shields with a tremendous force, making me cry out in pain and compressing me into the ground.

ARGH MY FUCKING SPINE!

The chime noise cut off.

“TAKE THIS YOU FUCKER!” Triya screamed in the doorway.

I saw a stream of small purple projectiles hurtling into the creatures face as a *BRRT* noise rattled the room.

The creature bellowed and shielded itself with its closest arms to protect against the minor yet rapid damage whilst crawling backwards.

Both shields pulled in, retreating to lie flat on my back, not fully retracting.

Which was very appreciated as it helped support my bruised spine and gave me some cover in case the bastard tried to attack me in the back.

Thanks guys!

This was the third time those shields had saved me from dying.

As I was getting up, I didn’t take my eyes off the creature and I saw its other more thicker skinned arms stretched round to take a turn in shielding the projectiles.

The creature stopped back peddling and managed one pace forward making me hesitate to move, as if it can’t see us if we don’t move!

RUN! STOP FUCKING DAWDLING!

I scrambled to my feet and dragged Tanner the final few metres through the door and went back to grab the welded door handle.

“TRIYA RUN!” I shouted, in the gloom the creature stepped two more paces forward.

She grabbed the orb construct, stopping it from firing and dove backwards out the door.

The creature rushed forward the instant the barrage stopped and was screaming in rage as I wrenched on the door to close it.

*clunk*

“FUCK! IT’S GOT A HOLD OF THE DOOR!! I NEED HELP!” I shouted out.

I hadn’t been quick enough, it had got a claw through and was tugging hard on the door.

Split seconds were the difference between vastly different outcomes.

I'd spent precious moments dumbfounded, like a deer in headlights, and now we might possibly die as a consequence..

…but the monster did a whoopsie.

The door frame shook violently as it tried to force the door open outwards, but only achieved slamming the door onto its own appendage, causing it to retract the claws and howl in pain.

“HAHA YOU STUPID BASTARD EAT SHIT!” a juvenile but appropriate retort slipped out as I yanked the door fully shut.

I grabbed Tanner's sledgehammer and put the long handle through the welded door handle to bar the door from opening.

There was angry screeching, thuds and scratching from where the nightmare was rather aggressively trying to get out at us, but the door and sledgehammer were holding up, plus the stupid creature was pushing instead of pulling so it was fighting against the reinforced frame.

I grinned stupidly at the door as I took some steps back before widening them as I remembered Tanners health. I spun round and

“Tanner! Drink! Hurry! S-shit!” adrenaline was blasting through my system so I fumbled the bottle cap a few times before shakily helping Tanner to drink.

He sputtered a bit but managed to drink a quarter and then after a few long seconds he started to recover and gulped some more down.

“Ughhhhh bugger me sideways that was grim-HUFFERGH!” He heaved and puked black gunk.

I patted his back gently chuckling with relief, as he wiped his face.

“PHEWWWW! Much better! Nothing like a tactical chunder right?” He grinned and rested on the grass, wincing when tried to move too fast.

This madman fucking grinned!

“Where’s Sylvie and Steve?!” I let out a deep sigh and scanned around, trying to catch my breath as the adrenaline started to flush out.

The Orb made some more printer jamming noises.

“And what kind of crazy amazing thing is that!” I pointed at the Orb that was darting around Triya, scanning her with its blue thin laser lights.

As soon as I pointed, it darted over and aimed at my finger and scanned it with a blue light before darting back and emitting a series of chimes and chirps.

Was it..communicating with Triya?

“Haha yes he’s not a threat that's right, but please, keep an eye out around here, we’ll need to move quickly in a second.” Triya giggle and spoke warmly to the Orb.

It chimed in response and then darted up a dozen feet and started scanning around.

“Steve took Sylvie back to the safe zone I think.” Triya said, pointing at the road.

“Ok thats good…that’s good…” I jumped as a loud dong rang out from the door, hopefully the fucker headbutted the heavy door.

We all paused as there was a nice moment of silence…then the screeching and banging continued.

“Sooo you can understand it?” I raised my eyebrows and pointed up.

She gave me a puzzled frown.

“You can’t? It’s speaking plain English though?”

“Huh that’s not what I hear. All I hear is grrr-brrr-jurrr-biiiiiiing!” A thin line of light snapped over me as I imitated the drone.

I sharply looked up at the drone as it made a series of low chimes and a thin laser line shone into my eye.

“H-hey! Ow!”

Tanner chuckled and took another swig of Tonic.

“Think it just called you a nob mate for mocking its accent!”

I gave tanner an unimpressed side look rubbing my eyes.

“Ohhhh. Well that explains it perfectly….” Triya put a finger to her cheek and pondered.

“So Xno says he’s a Daemon and only I can understand him…Hey Xno, why can’t the others understand y-”

Triya was interrupted by an almighty bang and the sound of masonry cracking.

The Daemon Xno let out a gritty synth growl.

“Right.” I said, stepping back a little more from the door.

“Well. As much faith I have in that door, maybe we should get going.” I pointed over my shoulder towards the safe zone.

“Are you good to walk Tanner?” I looked at him and he gave me a thumbs up.

“Uhh yes. Xno agrees. Let’s go back.” Triya nodded.

I helped Tanner up who groaned like an old git and then gave him a second as he carefully twisted his torso with a few loud cracks.

“Sounds good to me, let’s piss off.” he said, rubbing his ribs tenderly with a grim smile.

We started making our way back to the gates, there was no point hanging around and I was worried about Sylvie and Steve.

Arkly, I couldn’t give a shit about, the bastard had made no attempt to warn us or even help.

There were thousands of questions buzzing around my mind regarding this Daemon Xno but I settled on the most obvious one to ask first.

“So Triya, can Xno tell us why the world has been thrown into hell perhaps?” I felt a pang of dread when I asked.

Do I really want to know?

Triya looked at Xno who was hovering next to her shoulder.

It didn’t make any noises this time but Triya frowned in confusion then looked back at me.

“Um he says he doesn’t understand the question, can we be more specific?”

“Right okay. Where did Majik come from and why are there monsters attacking humanity?” I replied.

There was a pause then Triya’s eyes went wide and then she spoke.

The orb didn’t make any noises..wireless comms?? telepathy??

“Oh wow okay. He says he doesn’t know much more than what I know, he was created by me and inherited my knowledge. But he says the Majik stuff is everywhere, in everything. And as we have seen, it changes things on a fundamental level. The things we call monsters he calls..’negatives’? that must be destroyed since they want to consume or modify our mass..”

“No shit! But modify?” Tanner said.

Triya looked at Xno before continuing, she looked a lot paler.

“Oh my god…was that fucking thing trying to impregnate Sylvie?!”

“Meh, I wouldn't worry. When Sylvie wakes up and Erza finds out what it tried to do? that thing is getting napalmed.” Tanner made a hand gesture with sound effects, showing explosions.

I watched the ground as we moved, deep in thought.

There was something nagging at the back of my mind but I couldn’t catch my thoughts properly to narrow it down….too many unknowns, not enough information. When I have some time I'll try and figure it out.

As we came up to the gates, we could see a crowd of people gathering beyond them.

Sylvie and Steve were there with Sylvie talking to the group but Steve tapped her on the shoulder and pointed over at us.

Steve sheepishly waved and rushed up towards us.

“Thank the stars you guys are okay! I’m so sorry for leaving you behind but I was worried Sylvie was dying. She’s okay though! Except being extremely pissed off. Arklys gone, nobody saw him come back. We were getting people ready to come help you and raze that hell pit to the ground…I hope you can forgive me for leaving though but I had to get Sylvie out of there-” He was so flustered, blurting out his apology, the poor guy.

I honestly hadn’t even thought once that he’d left us. He’d risked his life to grab Sylvie and hauled her back to safety, the right thing to do considering the situation.

“Matey! Don’t sweat a thing, you didn't do nuffin’ wrong!” Tanner patted him on the shoulder.

“Yeah Steve, you did the right thing getting Syl out of there, nice work stud!” Triya winked at him with a thumbs up.

“Like the others said mate, you did the best thing and we all survived so that’s what counts. I think we made a big mistake for having our guards down but part of the blame for that is with me since I was bickering with Arkly..” I scratched the back of my head sheepishly.

Steve blew out air, relieved.

“You guys are awesome, I’m really glad you are all okay and hey Godu man, don’t be daft! I think it’s clear that he’s a dickhead and nearly got us all killed with his childish behaviour. We need to start thinking more seriously and treat everything we do like it’s life or death so we’re definitely going to have a community discussion about that….anyhow, let’s go to the others, we’ve got a plan” he gave a tight smile and spun round, trotting off to Sylvie and the crowd.

Sylvie came over and pulled Tanner off to the side and I saw him smiling and trying to wave her off but she grabbed him and gave him a bear hug. She pulled away and he looked awkward and tried to avoid eye contact as he kept nodding whilst Sylvie gave him a short speech.

I grinned knowing she was probably telling him off but thanking him profusely for helping save her.

She gave him a suspicious look, as if she knew he’d been hurt. He tried to stop her but she did a medical check on him, ending with her placing a palm over his chest and some wisps of Majik snaked their way out and disappeared into his skin.

They came back over and thanked us; Triya especially, for saving her life.

I didn’t feel it was justified, since I barely did anything but I didn’t try to argue.

The large group had already been debriefed so she filled us in with the plan, which was simply to use ranged attacks to lure the nightmare outside and then have people wait in ambush on either side of the entrance with ropes and chains to hold it down before a melee group steps in and smashes the shit out of it.

Similar to the stickman fight.

“Great plan, I like it!” Triya put on a predatory grin and rubbed her hands.

10 quid I bet Steve came up with this plan.

“Ahem, why thank you!” Steve said with a smug face, giving a thumbs up.

I owe myself 10 quid….

***