“Ngh… agh. What the fuck…”

With an irritated grunt, Pierce kicked away some of the stones that were slowly falling down beside him. He slowly climbed to his feet, vigorously shaking his flashlight to try and turn it back on — to no avail — before beginning to look around himself. Darkness fully covered his surroundings, accompanied by an eerie silence; less than a minute had passed since the explosion that caused the cave-in, but already the rocks had settled, and Pierce found himself on the other side unscathed.

The sound of shifting rocks drew Pierce’s attention to his left. A second later, a dim beam of light cut through the rocks as Conrad slowly dug himself out, using the blade end of his summoned glaive to effortlessly slice through the rocks.

“Dude…” Pierce rushed to Conrad’s side and helped pull him to his feet. “You okay?”

Conrad coughed and cleared his throat before sweeping the beam of his flashlight over his own body. “…Seems like it,” he eventually replied. “I don’t feel pain anywhere, I don’t seem to be missing anything… these energy shields sure are useful, huh?”

“They didn’t stop the cave-in from happening in the first place, though…” Pierce muttered. He then shook his hands, at first in an attempt to stretch his fingers, but then he quickened his shaking to see just how fast he could do so. “…My speed’s back. I guess the cave-in killed the CENT field.”

“Or shoved us far enough away from it to not be affected.”

“What? That’s ridiculous.”

“I dunno…” Conrad slowly swept his flashlight across the dark space in which he and Pierce were standing. As the beam moved across the stony cave walls, it revealed an area much wider than either of the forked hallways the group had run into before the cave-in.

“…Okay, that’s a problem,” Pierce admitted. “And is it just us—?”

A sharp crack echoed through the air as some of the caved-in rock next to Conrad exploded outwards. As more rocks began falling in to fill the new hole, Davídrius irately clawed his way out, coughing the whole way. He was soon clear of the rocks, where he stopped for a second to catch his breath — and then kicked at the wall next to him in frustration. “Fuck! Fucking… fuck!”

“You alright?” Pierce called after him.

Davídrius promptly whipped around, his flashlight active and directed at Pierce — and then at Conrad. Conrad, in turn, shone his flashlight on Davídrius, allowing the three men to see each other amidst the pitch-black darkness of the cave. “…Just you two?” the Dean questioned.

“As far as we can tell, at least,” Conrad replied.

“Fuck…” Davídrius muttered. “…That was fuckin’ Shade. A Bleeder! What the hell are the Bleeders doin’ on fuckin’ Nayasis, of all places? How the dirt did she get off of Nimalia? Is she even a fucking Bleeder? Fuck…”

Pierce and Conrad exchanged a wary glance before Conrad began sweeping his flashlight beam across the cave again, in search of an exit. “Well, we should probably focus on finding a way out of here, right?” he questioned.

“If it’s finding a way out, we should be fine,” Pierce replied. “Davídrius and I are Velocitechnics, we can just break and dig our way through the rocks faster than they replace themselves.”

“Don’t be stupid,” Davídrius countered. “Introtechnic strength and durability ain’t no match for a fuckin’ mountain. Besides, tryin’ to dig our way out might just make the problem worse.”

“How do you suggest we get out of here, then?” Pierce challenged. “You told us we’re the only Chaotics on the planet, so it isn’t like we can just sit around and wait for help!”

“I didn’t say we’re doin’ that, either,” Davídrius said, beginning to search the caves himself. Upon finding an apparent path away from the caved-in section, the Dean began walking towards it while gesturing for Pierce and Conrad to follow. “…By the looks of things, that cave-in shoved us a good distance away from where Shade found us.”

“What do you think happened to the others?” Conrad asked.

“If we’re fine, I’m sure they are, too,” Davídrius replied. “…But I’m pretty sure we got separated. I know Christeané; he’d be the first to dig himself out of a situation like that. If he wasn’t already out by the time I was, then he’s either dead, or somewhere else.”

“You say that pretty calmly…”

“Oh I’m fuckin’ pissed right now, believe me. What the fuck are the Bleeders even doin’ here, huh?” The Dean paused to take a deep breath. “…But anger ain’t gonna help us out much, right now. We need to focus on gettin’ the hell outta here.”

“So we can find that ‘Shade’ person and kick her ass?” Pierce replied.

“…For once, I find myself agreein’ with you,” Davídrius said. “Still, how the hell… she can’t be a Bleeder, surely. Ain’t no way in hell a Bleeder is findin’ their way off-world. Not without help…”

“Could it have something to do with the Nanocreatures being here?” Conrad suggested.

“I damn well hope not. If the Bleeders got an infection problem, then Treséd’s got an infection problem, and that ain’t somethin’ I wanna deal with.”

“Looks like it’s a problem we’re going to have to deal with, here, though…” Pierce muttered, momentarily stopping in his tracks. Before the trio, the small cave opened up into a massive cavern of darkness, so large that the beams from Conrad and Davídrius’s flashlights appeared to fade into the darkness. More pertinent than that, however, was the large mound resting on the cavern floor some distance away. Conrad slowly swept his flashlight beam across it, revealing its metallic silver hide and giant size — as well as the furled wings on its back, and the reptilian snout large enough to swallow a person whole.

“It’s one of those silver dragons,” Conrad whispered.

“Fuck… there really is a Critical Infection, here?” Davídrius scowled. “How the hell? On Nayasis…?”

“At least it’s sleeping, now,” Pierce said. “Maybe we can leave it alone…”

Conrad passed Pierce an incredulous look. “You want to avoid fighting it? Who the hell are you, and what have you done with Pierce?”

“Shut up, asshole,” Pierce snapped. “You weren’t there to fight the dragon on Orciid’kas. That thing was practically impossible for me or even Mark to fight, with how it kept deforming itself and opening up fucking holes in its body.”

“I’d heard about that…” Davídrius mused. “I honestly ain’t ever heard of an infection dragon makin’ moves like that. I’ve fought a few in my time, and I was always able to hit ‘em hard just fine. I think the one you fought was an outlier.”

“And if it wasn’t?”

“…Good question. I guess if we don’t know why that dragon was actin’ differently, we can’t assume others won’t be the same way. But the thing is… this dragon is right there. It’s sleepin’, now, but it won’t be long ‘til it wakes up and starts fuckin’ shit up for the Nayasis settlement. We’ve got energy shields with us, so even if we can only stall it, we can stall it for a damn long while…” The Dean trailed off, and then turned his flashlight to look at Pierce and Conrad. “Now, I realize that neither of y’all signed up for this, so if y’all wanna sit out, I sure as dirt won’t blame you. But I’m gonna see what I can do against the dragon. If I can destroy enough of it, I might set back the Critical Infection enough to let the folks above evacuate…”

“What, and let you get all the glory for yourself?” Pierce retorted. “If you’re going in, old man, then so am I!”

“I ain’t old, you bastard,” Davídrius shot back. “…But, now that I think of it, your Ayas weapon should help out a lot, here.”

“And your invisibility would help a lot,” Pierce stated as he turned to throw his arm around Conrad’s shoulder. “I know you’ve been practicing turning things invisible at range. You want to test that ability, right? You know you want to help.”

“I know that I don’t,” Conrad said, only to sigh a second later. “…But I guess there isn’t much of a choice, is there? If I sit out and that thing kicks your asses, then I’d have to face it all by myself.”

“Alright…” Davídrius looked back to the dragon — though as his flashlight beam moved across its face once again, he found that this time, the dragon was staring back. With an audible snort, the metallic beast slowly began to rouse, its massive wings unfurling as it climbed to its full, incredible height.

“…Looks like it’s taking the fight to us, huh?” Pierce commented warily.

“It would figure,” Davídrius growled, and then made to leap toward the dragon. “Alright, y’all! Follow my lead, and use your weapons as much as y’all can! Let’s take it down! Overdrive: Speed Break!!”

“Overdrive: Speed Break!” Pierce echoed before readily jumping after Davídrius, ready to fight the giant beast before them.

---

*

“Is it really just us…?”

“Unfortunately, it seems like it…” Christeané replied as he cautiously stepped through the dark caves in front of him, his flashlight beam slowly sweeping left to right and back again. Trailing behind the Dean were Austin and Spike, themselves warily watching their surroundings with their flashlights. Only a few minutes had passed since Spike freed the trio from the caved-in rocks, having used a hastily-fabricated shield to create a small open pocket within the stone. Once freed, Christeané quickly deduced that the trio must have been pushed down one of the forks in the tunnel they had encountered earlier, and were now separated from Davídrius, Pierce, Conrad, and Mark.

“Will we be able to get outta here?” Spike questioned uneasily.

“I’d like to say ‘yes’,” Christeané replied. “…But, realistically… I don’t know.”

“Well, you’re both Forcetechnics, right?” Austin pointed out while glancing between Christeané and Spike. “And I can copy your strength! Can’t we just, like… punch our way out?”

Christeané responded with an incredulous snort. “And, what, cause another cave-in?” he retorted, “as much as it pains me to say, not every problem can be solved with brute strength.”

“I hope the others are alright, at least…” Spike muttered.

“If we’re fine, I’m sure they are, too,” the Dean asserted. “Davídrius sure as hell isn’t going to let a cave-in, of all things, do him in. Even worse when that cave-in was started by a Bleeder. Chances are, he’ll survive out of pure hate and spite.”

“Could probably say the same about Pierce,” Austin said. “There’s no way he’d let a blow to his ego go.”

“And as long as Pierce is around, Conrad is probably fine…” Spike mused. “And Mark can handle himself. Alright, then, we just gotta worry about ourselves.”

“Exactly,” Christeané replied, only to stop in his tracks with his flashlight beam focused on one part of the cave walls: a part of the walls featuring streaks of metallic silver, as though a beast had clawed at the rocks. “…Unfortunately, we’re probably going to run into trouble, soon.”

“I really don’t like this…” Austin muttered as he stared at the silver claw marks. “If we were attacked, now… then how the hell would we fight back? It’s so cramped and dark in here!”

“The tunnels are definitely small…” Christeané said, turning to look at the cave through which they walked; it was barely wide enough to walk two-abreast, and the cave ceiling came down to within half a foot of Spike’s head. While not the most crowded of conditions, it was certainly a terrible location for any kind of combat. “…All the more reason to keep looking,” the Dean eventually finished as he continued moving through the tunnels.

“Keep looking for what?” Spike questioned.

“A cavern, or something,” Christeané replied. “For some reason, the infection really likes hiding out in underground tunnels, particularly ones with big caverns. The big cavern is where a Critical Infection will nest.”

“You mean one of those silver dragons?” Austin asked. “…Wait, why are we looking for one of those things?!”

“If it exists, we need to destroy it, for the sake of the Nayasis settlement. And if it’s in a cavern, then that gives us more room to maneuver than in this tiny little cave. Our shields are still active and healthy, for the most part, so combat with the infection isn’t too dangerous… so long as we end any fight quickly.”

“That sounds like a pretty big ‘if’!”

“It’s not great, but it’s what we have to work with. Plus, if we can find a cavern, then it might be easier to find a way out of here — even if we do resort to punching through rock.” The Dean then looked down at his flashlight, though in the darkness of the cave, his expression was lost on Austin and Spike. “…The only problem is these lights of ours, and holding on to them during a fight.”

“No kiddin’…” Spike muttered. “Coulda done with some headlamps.”

“I would’ve preferred those, as well, but Nayasis doesn’t have any. They aren’t a mining settlement, so I can understand why, but it’s still a massive pain in the ass…”

Christeané then trailed off, allowing the trio to fall into silence as they quietly and cautiously progressed through the winding cave tunnels. In that silence, however, the trio soon caught the faint echoes of skittering — skittering that quickly began to grow in volume.

“Shit!” Christeané scowled as Spike behind him fabricated a small buckler in preparation for throwing. “Looks like we’ve been found!”

“We— we can’t fight the Nanocreatures here!” Austin exclaimed in exasperation.

“Looks like we don’t got much of a choice!” Spike replied as a couple of silver bugs, each the size of a basketball, skittered through Christeané’s flashlight beam a couple dozen meters ahead of the group. Spike immediately threw his buckler at them, smashing one of them to bits and sending the other scurrying away — only for five more to take its place.

“Alright, this is it!” Christeané shouted, tightly gripping the tether of his battlehammer in preparation for a fight. “Spike, get up here with me! Austin, do whatever you can from behind us! If we see an opening to push through the bugs, we’re taking it, but don’t let them push us back — there’s a dead end behind us, and I’d really like to not make that literal!”

“Got it!” Spike replied.

“I don’t like this…!” Austin muttered as he summoned his claymore into his right hand.

“I don’t, either, but it’s what we have to deal with!” Christeané declared — right as he hurled his hammer forward to smash some of the approaching bugs, and then used the attached tether to yank the weapon back. “Now c’mon, we can do this! Just follow my lead!!”