Kondrieu

“There it is!” an auburn-haired man exclaimed. He raised his robed arm and pointed his index finger at a massive, glowing object ahead. The egg-shaped rock sat in the middle of the cold, somewhat dark cave. A section of the stone was fractured, revealing a glowing section much like a fire to a steam engine; the radiation glowed intermittently, with each moderate flash illuminating the rocky walls of the niche. The rock had been discovered many times, but its powers were never analyzed completely and mutations had brought about strange, gigantic wormlike creatures from the ground. Each visit to this mysterious cavern produced another of the beasts, and of course, they had to be stopped.

“Hmmm, I’m not so sure we should touch it now...” Behind the FOmar who pointed to the rock stood two other hunters: a lithely designed android, who was armed with extremely sharp daggers in both hands, and another man, with a rifle securely held in his arms. The voice belonged to the RAmar in the team; he was feeling rather shaky about the situation and looked distraught, as if anything bad could happen at the moment.

“Yeah, we’re ready!” the FOmar energetically exclaimed. The HUcaseal said nothing, but readied herself in a battle position. The blades of the Daylight Scar ejected outward, extending past the forearms. The ranger nervously shook before running over to the side and began scaling up one of the rocky outcroppings. Sage smiled, turned to the other two, and walked forward to the rock. A Yasminkov slipped out from his robe into his hand; he could feel his modified life system synchronizing with the supposedly ranger-only handgun. Just as he neared the meteorite, he turned back. Nova had secured himself to the rock at last and loaded a new photon canister into the rifle and nodded his head, though thoughts of uncertainty ran across his mind. A quick green light flashed across the eyes of the silent HUcaseal ‘Purple Blaze’, indicating ready mode.

Sage lightly tapped the rock. Within seconds, the flashing quickened and overwhelmed the natural light coming from the hole in the cave ceiling. Stalactites began falling, and the ground trembled as if an earthquake were happening. The force, calm as ever, stared straight ahead. Suddenly, a huge snakelike body ejected outward, launching boulders the size of Garanz’s. “Now!” he yelled and aimed his handgun at the roaring beast. The laser sight instantly connected with the creature and Sage released round after round into its thick skin, seemingly to no effect. On the battlefield, tens of human-sized beasts popped out of the ground, acting as a defense mechanism for the green creature, Kondrieu. Within seconds, Purple Blaze dashed around in unmatched speeds, daggers in hand, and ripped across the field, tearing most of the tinier creatures before they could spin and release their razor sharp arms.

Nova, from above, fired at the beast as well. Both the combined efforts of he and Sage knocked Kondrieu into the ground, where it began snaking around, summoning more of its minions to attack the FOmar and the HUcaseal above ground. But true to her designed capabilities and name, the HUcaseal was nothing more than a violet blur, dashing around whenever those annoying things popped up and killing them mercilessly. At last, the worm was hit on its back, stunning it temporarily. Its tail ejected upward, with the hard scythe-like end dragging literally tons of sand upward. Now, the three hunters focused their attacks on the vulnerable underside, unrelenting in their attacks. Suddenly, Kondrieu whipped its tail around, knocking both hunters on the floor to the ground, and it shot out like a rocket, tearing apart a section of the cave and opening a new one.

When Sage and Purple Blaze got to their feet and healed, they looked ahead into the smaller cave that Kondrieu escaped into. There, the green beast stared at them, in pain and fury, and roared loudly. Great bursts of saliva sprayed outward, like mist, and more stalactites fell from the ceiling. “Time to drag it out, haha!” Sage exclaimed. He never seemed genuinely worried about anything, except in dire situations; even then, he kept composure to the fullest extent. The two ran forward into the enclosure and struck the beast’s head repeatedly, dodging the miniature tornadoes and biomechanical missiles. Nova anxiously waited for the fight to end within the cave, but without warning, Kondrieu reared its head from its niche and fired a great beam from its mouth in the enclosure, into the cave.

The beam went in an erratic path, tearing apart more rocks and sending sections of the rocky supports tumbling down. The beam narrowly missed the ranger situated on his platform. Luckily, that was it; Kondrieu burrowed again and escaped into the larger cave. The two hunters then ran back out, with Sage occasionally firing at the beast when its back was exposed. Then, when it was finally in range, Nova dropped his rifle and pulled out a pair of machineguns. The Yasminkovs, unlike Sage’s, were specially designed for long range. From where he stood, the RAmar repeatedly fired at the beast; despite it being “submerged” in the sand, each bullet successfully penetrated the beast.

Despite being nearly dead, Kondrieu emerged once more and wrapped its body around the meteor, with one of its stubby clawed arms resting on the top of the meteorite. It opened its mouth and fired a beam straight through the ceiling hole; suddenly, a return beam fell from the sky, striking the meteor dead-on, launching debris and force as strong as a bomb at all three hunters, with each taking substantial damage. Despite this, they never stopped attacking at the worm, until it finally collapsed. The D-Cells began rapidly degenerating and decomposing; within seconds, the body completely vanished and the job was done.

The three hunters gathered together again and left the chamber, with the meteor glowing moderately once more.