A Blight-infected human clawed at the cage it was being transported in. The cage was on a four-wheel autonomous droid. The creature was mostly human-looking, but pieces of its body were rotted and had fallen off of it. It lunged at the bars, screaming and clawing at the people outside. Fungal strains came from its mouth, twisting and turning as they tried to reach for their human prey beyond the cell bars.
A guard stuck an electric prong into the Hollow. The creature screamed in pain as the electric energy flowed through its body. It jerked back and fell to the floor, spasming.
Draven watched as Olina started drifting towards the guards transporting the Hollow. He put his hand on her shoulder, steering her clear of the guards as they passed the group by, "The sooner we get to the server room, the faster you get your freedom," Draven whispered into her ear.
They had been traveling through the lower levels of the power plant for a few minutes. From what Draven could tell, they had expanded the lower level. Containment chambers locked in groups of Hollows while the scientists experimented on them. These Hollows were in various states of progression in their infection. But what scared Draven the most was their late-stage variants of the Hollows in containment. Thankfully, they only had one type, and they were all kept on sedatives.
Olina continued guiding Draven and Sygvar further into the underground facility. All the scientists that they passed wore white hazmat suits. Guards wore black armor with black masks covering their faces; they carried around assault rifles and electric prongs. There were also engineers dressed in blue hazmat suits and had tool belts around their waists.
Olina stopped in front of a clear glass double door. "This is it."
"Go on and open it," Draven said.
Olina slided her ID card into the card reader next to the door. The light above the card reader flashed green, and the clear glass doors slid open. Draven grabbed Olina by the arm and dragged her into the room. Sygvar followed after them.
The server room was filled with server towers, each filled with servers. The room was cold to prevent the computers from overheating. The sound of fans buzzing was constant as they fought to keep the computers at a cool temperature.
Draven headed straight towards the closest interfacing terminal. He clicked enter on the keyboard, and the monitor of the computer lit up, revealing a login screen. "Give me the login password."
"I don't have the highest clearance, so some files are locked. The password they gave me was 'Window ignite near drop,' the W is capitalized in the window."
Draven entered the password and logged in. The screen changed to a command line interface. He typed in the command 'ls' and the computer outputed a list of files and directories. Thousands of files and folders were printed onto the screen.
"Just download all of it. We don't have time to search it all." Sygvar said from behind Draven's shoulder.
Draven pulled out a flash drive and connected it to a port on the side of the computer. He navigated to the flash drive location and initiated a download of all the contents on the server.
As soon as he started downloading, red flashing lights lit up in the server room. A loud, deep noise began to play on the speakers. The computer terminal went black, locking Draven out.
He turned around to face Olina, "What happened?"
"I don't know," she responded.
The server room doors opened, and a squad of guards rushed. Their assault rifles were trained on Draven, Sygvar, and Olina.
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"Drop any weapons you have and kick them away from yourselves!" One of the guards stepped forward and yelled at them. He had on a silver metal that differentiated himself from the others he commanded. "Then get down on the ground!"
"I'm sorry! They made me do this! I just want to go home! Please don't kill me!" Olina said as she got down on the ground and started crying.
"Let's take this outside the server room. And try not to kill anyone," Sygvar said as he drew his sword.
"I know," Draven followed his master's example. With his sword in hand, he assumed the 1st kata of Al'Manti sword. The first kata was filled with sword techniques for dominating opponents and relentless attacks.
"Fire!" The guard leader commanded. His troops aimed their assault rifles and fired at Draven and Sygvar.
Draven ran right while Sygvar left. He cycled Essence around his body. Every aspect of his being was enhanced to superhuman levels. His perception of the world began to speed up as the Essence entered his brain. He outran the bullet fire. The guards could not aim fast enough to catch Draven before he started moving again. The bullets were still faster than him. He moved in a zig-zag movement pattern, getting closer to the guards while he forced them to adjust their aims.
He finally reached them. Essence surged into Draven's outstretched arm. He converted it to kinetic energy and fired a concussive blast. The guards before him were flung into the air and away from Draven. They fell to the floor, and Draven vaulted over them. He landed on the ground and bolted out the server room door before they could attack him. Sygvar arrived outside the server room right after him.
The guards trickled out of the server room. They fired their assault rifles at Draven and his master. Sygvar erected a kinetic force barrier. The bullets hit the barrier and then dropped to the ground.
Draven channeled Essence into his eyes. Thousands of Threads of various shades of color became visible to his eyes. He searched for the Threads tied to the concepts of Force, Fire, Bolt, Strength, Speed, and Spin. He bound those concepts to a small chunk of his Essence. He wove a six Thread Spell, which he had plenty of practice with. His hands blurred as the spell weave took form and fused with the soul of his Essence. The Essence shot out of Draven's body and condensed into multiple small projectiles. They took the shape of miniature spinning bolts that pulsed with a warm fire energy. Sygvar took down the barrier for a split second, and Draven launched the attack at the group of guards. The Kinetic Fire Bolts zipped through the air faster than the guards could react. The Bolts hit the guards and exploded. They flew off their feet, the bolts destroying their armor.
Three mystics ran towards Draven and Sygvar. They wielded black metal staffs. Both ends of their staves ended in electric tasers. The electricity from the staves crackled and popped as they arced through the air.
"We're going to have to abandon the mission; Draven called for backup. This is more than we can handle between the two of us," Sygvar said. He charged the incoming squad of mystics.
Draven followed behind his master while calling the Al'Manti headquarters. He told them where he and Sygvar were and about the rebels and their Blight experiments. He requested that they get to their location as fast as possible and then hung up.
When Draven focused back on his master, Sygvar was fighting against the three mystics. Sygvar and the three mystics were evenly matched. Draven condensed nine kinetic bolts from his Essence and fired them at the three enemy mystics.
One took three missiles to the back and fell to the ground in pain. The second dodged all three, and then Sygvar cut the woman across the chest. The last one deflated all three with a kinetic shield.
One of the force fire bolts struck the glass of a containment cell for a group of Hollows. Cracks slowly spread across the glass of the chamber. Then the glass shattered. The creatures inside screamed at the noise and then exited their prison. The first three stages of hollows all looked vaguely human. These creatures looked nothing like that. These were the evolved elites of the Blight's horde.
Like a cat, the creature stood on two digitigrade legs. A bone-white exoskeleton completely covered the outside of the beast. Its limbs ended in razor-sharp claws. A thick, long tail extended behind the creature, the tip of the tail ending in a spear-like spike. Its tail thrashed against the ground as it swung back and forth. The creature's eyes were entirely covered by its exoskeleton. From the description, Draven knew this was a Wargoth.
It hissed and flashed its serrated teeth. It charged the first guard nearby. The guard ran, but the Hollow was faster. The guard screamed as the claw of the creature pierced his chest. Blood splattered on the guards nearby. The wargoth opened its mouth, and fungal strains came out as it bit its victim.
More Wargoths pour out of their containment cells. The guards stopped attacking the intruding Al'Manti and instead focused on running for their lives. The Wargoths started picking them off one by one. Slowly infecting the staff of the laboratory.
"Draven, let's go. We need to get out of here before the infection get too large," Sygvar pulled Draven's arm. Sygvar ran in the direction of the laboratory exit. Draven followed after his master.