'I promise that I won't.' Guila reminded herself a second time, as she watched the door fall with a crash and Ariel disappear from sight. Then, after a minute or so, she followed.
The spear that Ariel wielded, now featured a triangular point. Unfortunately, the tool's light was weakening, which meant that it was losing power. Hence, they couldn't keep using the oscillation.
Half a meter away from her was the limit of what Ariel could see. But despite even dimmer surroundings, she had no trouble getting her bearings and jumping to her feet. She also had a good idea about what to expect, thanks to Guila's description and her own hearing.
A large, heavy, and slow moving target.
She stood inside a large gray room with a ceiling that was twice her height, and metal lockers and benches flanking her on either side. The floor was rough and grating against her feet, made even worse by the massive pools and streaks of revolting mucus. But thanks to the bandages, it almost seemed manageable.
However, for now, all that mattered was the direction of the banging. To the right, from where she entered.
"...mph!" With a grunt, Ariel gripped the spear under her armpit and prepared a downward stabbing stance. Then she charged. The terrain felt like tiny knives constantly stabbing into her feet, but she knew that her enemy was something several times her size and could overpower her easily. So she needed to build up speed if she planned to end this quickly.
But just as much as she wanted to save others, Ariel wanted to prove her wrong. She wanted to make Guila believe in her.
'Faster.' She told herself. 'Keep my stance low. Avoid the puddles when I can. Once I make contact, drag the blade across the creature's length.'
'Then I'll… why did the noises sto-?!
"Jump to the left!" Guila screamed at the top of her lungs, and for a moment Ariel froze. With her eyes just barely adjusted to the darkness, she saw it beyond the light's reach; the front end of a massive creature she had never seen before.
Glassy compound eyes reflected the glow back at her and towering over her were two long, spiny antennae. Then, it stepped - no - it leapt forward!
Guila had seen it prepare to jump and now it has!
Time seemed to slow down as it happened.
Two sets of palps that looked like miniature arms were reaching for Ariel, while a sideways beak-like mouth seemed ready to tear her in half.
As more and more of its grotesque, mucus-covered, wide, and pale-carapaced body was revealed to her, Ariel only had one thought in her head. They were right to be terrified.
This creature would eat her alive without any difficulty and do the same to Guila soon after. They'd be shreds of flesh, organs, and bones, within puddles of blood and mucus, just several dozen meters away from each other.
To encounter one of these creatures, much less fight one, was complete and utter suicide. She should've listened to reason and waited for some sort of chance. Now that it was so close, Guila probably wanted her to duck or lie flat on the ground.
That was surely the only way to survive and buy herself just a few more seconds of life.
However, Ariel grit her teeth.
The creature was only a split-second away from making contact and death became all to clear for her. Yet she leapt backwards! Granting the creature an even better chance of hitting her!
'She panicked…' Guila could only stare in horror at the realization. Ariel made a split-second decision, and now she'd be forced to watch the consequences. No, she wasn't out of options, yet. 'If I hurry. I might be able to get back to the hotel while she's…'
But then she saw the orange glowing spear get raised up, even as Ariel soared through the air. Her leap, despite being weakened, had granted her necessary time and space to regain her posture.
Enough to land back down with her spear directed straight at the insect's head.
The painfully crack and the disgusting squelch of its head being torn into, echoed throughout the narrow room. The entire blade had been embedded into it by the time it landed, while Ariel was lifted off the floor by the impact.
The insect was at least several times heavier than Ariel and was bound to skid across the ground. So instead of trying to stop it, the Vulpina used the spear as a pivot, and planted her feet against its eyes. She rode it's corpse for less than a second, but by then was slammed against the concrete wall back the direction she came, only a short distance away from where Guila stood.
"... Urhk...!" She groaned, the the spear dislodged itself due to her weight and she fell to the side with a wet thud. Ariel had slain the massive beast, in exchange for trembling arms, aching shoulders and a sore back.
The two women, stunned, stayed like that for what seemed like forever, neither of them capable of believing what just happened.
But the air had changed, and the noises outside got louder. Then they heard multiple heavy thuds on the ceiling, followed by the crash of glass from the Hotel.
"... Guila…!" Fear and anger colored Ariel's tone, as she recovered the spear and got back to her feet, ears alert. But the stench-soaked, stale air exacerbated her disorientation and made it near impossible to regain her stamina properly.
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"Give me a second!" On the other hand, Guila swiveled her head in a circle before running over to Ariel. Opposite to the direction of the fight, was another door, but that one had been broken into, probably by the same creature they'd just killed, and it led into another building.
But there were two other doors in the rectangular room. Maintenance Passage G31, and what was presumably the actual entrance from outside. Meaning, they only had one choice.
“Guila, the child?” Ariel asked, trying to catch a glimpse of the creature's rear, but Guila just grabbed the spear from her hand and yelled; “Dead!”
"Now, let's go!" Guila quickly grabbed Ariel's hand and yanked her towards the direction, only to have it shaken off.
"I-" Ariel starts, her gaze lowered and her hair blocking Guila from looking at her face. "I could've handled that!" She yelled, her tone a mixture of anger, embarrassment, and shame. But despite the apparent conviction she had, it didn't stop her from stumbling in words, the physical and mental stress from the earlier fight taken a toll on her.
Not to mention the fear she had for Guila embedded deep in her core.
"Are you serious, right now!?" Not fully knowing where this was coming from, Guila could only respond with confusion.
"If… if you hadn't shouted then-"
Just then, more shattering glass and chittering came from the hotel, and she could no longer tolerate Ariel's behavior. She slapped the Vulpina once more, ending whatever hysterics Ariel thought now was the perfect time to get into.
“We're leaving now!”
----------------------------------------
The two of them sat on the metal grated floors, opposite from each other, with nothing but red emergency lights shining on them and the deactivated multi-tool spear between them. The door leading back into the Security Outpost was still within earshot and even now, the insects kept chittering and bashing on the other side.
They had to leave.
Both of them knew that, but neither Guila nor Ariel could stop glaring at each other.
“You nearly got us killed, Ariel.”
“I could've saved him, if you weren't so stubborn.”
Guila was reminded of the boy they'd left behind.
An orange-haired vatgrown with soft, rounded ears, and a massive dent on it's head. Death by trauma. It's twitching ears were just that, it's last spasms. But, even more importantly, she was reminded of all the equipment they could've gotten their hands on. Weapons, clothes, body armor, flashlights, tools, actual footwear instead of rag-wraps. All of that was gone because one of them just needed to be heroic instead of being smart.
They could've lured it, right? Even if they couldn't, any other course of action besides running over to it, would've been better.
“What value did he even have to you? Are you seriously going to keep sulking, when we're still so far away from safety?”
“Value?” Ariel raised her brows and bared her teeth. With light and sight finally granted to her, she could direct her emotions properly. But rather than be affected by it, her mistress remained calm and uncaring, angering her even further. “What’s wrong with you…?!”
“What do you mean by that, Ariel?”
“Why should value matter? We had a chance to help, and we should've!”
“We are not heroes, Ariel.” Guila answered coldly, her expression, as if looking at something irredeemable. Clearly, there was a mistake with what she was given in the learning pod. There was no way her husband would give such foolish thinking to something that would stand beside him as a concubine. Perhaps there was some oversight, but now was as good a time as any to correct the problem.
“It's not our job to help others, especially when we are incapable of it. You should know your own limits best.”
“Then…” Ariel said, before baring a derisive, taunting smile. An act that scared herself, far more than it did Guila. “What if I stopped seeing value in you, would you be fine if I left you for dead too?”
“Are you?” This time it was Guila's turn to grin, and the emotion behind her expression, that palpable sense that Ariel's entire being was being looked down upon, forced the Vulpina to hide her face. Her chest ached when she looked into those eyes. She wasn't even hated. She was belittled. Seen as nothing but trash. A burden.
Ariel's ears, once high and alert due to rage, folded against her head while her tail curled into itself. She wanted Guila to stop. But her Mistress kept speaking anyway.
“You are going to choose someone else over me? Someone you don't even know, much less have any reason to care about? Maybe you would. But me? There's only two other people I'd ever help over you, and neither of them would ever need me. Which means that to me, you are my most valued person.”
“Am I wrong, Ariel?” She said, her voice softer this time. “Am I wrong for wanting your safety more than anyone else's? Tell me so, and I will stop.”
“Should I stop caring about you and end this relationship here?”
Ariel's stomach twisted in agony after hearing her question. She didn't fear her anger, because she understood that was part of her love. But apathy? Guila still cared for her, that's why she was being looked down upon. If she'd lose that too...!
“... no!” Ariel finally answered, her face still hidden behind her knees. “... please no… I don't want that…!”
“I'm sorry for being selfish, Guila…”
To her answer, Guila smiled wryly but softly, and got up. Then she walked over to pat the trembling Ariel's head.
“I forgive you. Just learn from your mistakes, okay?”
“Okay…” She nodded as tears ran down her cheeks, reassured by the warm, soft strokes on her head. “I promise, I will…”