After some rough testing, ScorchMan began his descent down the shaft, his senses surrounding by molten rock of different temperatures. Some was cooling rapidly, while other channels remained liquid hot, likely left over from where the mite trails had swarmed earlier. With care, though, he was able to manage his downward slide with at least partial control.
Claw brake or not, though, it still made for a swift descent, and smaller breaks in the fissures wall, peeking out into other disused layers of the building structure, rushed by faster than any regular elevator might have allowed. The heat grew as he slid deeper, and he found himself having to dig his claw in deeper and deeper into the wall itself to arrest his speed at all; the dripping magma rapidly spread, becoming an oozing slurry that barely resembled a solid wall at all, and soon reached a point where ScorchMan had to plunge his arm into the magma around him to find solid substance to purchase on at all... and then there was nothing and his descent became a tumbling lava slide, supported only by the resistant flow of molten rock.
Light and heat had begun to swell from below, as he moved down and drew closer to is source, and it rushed to meet him as his pace increased. A moment later, the sense of enclosed space fell away and the shaft opened into a much more open area. ScorchMan himself descend the last forty or fifty feet down the pouring flow of magma, open air all around him, until it splashed down into a sea of liquid rock. Certainly not a friendly environment for anyone not already comfy with fire.
All around him, the space was seemingly vast; an eroded cavern, with streams of lava dripping and drizzling in from over head all across its ceiling, and dark points across the sea of lava marking solid masses of resilient stone or heat-proofed metals. Broken sections of machinery jutted up from the lava, partially melted or corroded, sometimes twisted and torn.. sometimes looking suspiciously like they'd been bitten off or chewed on by something. It made for an uneven hellscape of platforms and spires, interposed with columns of falling magma and what felt like a deep, constantly churning, bubbling, pulsing sea of heat beneath. A nearby ledge would probably let ScorchMan climb out if he wanted to, though as a fire navi there was no immediate need for him to do so. There was no sign of his quarry just yet – just the sounds of bubbling lava, shifting rock and metal, and... a sound like something sparking and frizzing, from somewhere in the chamber that was hard to pinpoint.
Up above, Prose continued to set up her own climbing gear, but glanced back over her shoulder to see if Griffin's view point was still following her, or if he'd stayed with ScorchMan on his forward descent. She gave the screen a playful side smirk as she continue dot set up the gear and make sure it was ready to go. Anyone paying attention might guess that it was well ready already, and the bunny girl was wasting time, but only if they were paying attention to such things.
“Hey, hope you don't mind me being a bit... playful! I just can't wait to tell mum that I got to meet her favourite fireman. Hey... don't suppose you're on friendly terms with Mr July, too? Is this too personal?” As she chatted, Prose had turned mostly to face the view, fiddling with a couple of extra cables and catches, then pulled on one as though to test it. It hoisted on a clip that seemed to have somehow gotten itself attached to her chest band and lifted the elasticated material up until it was very clearly not covering or supporting what it was meant to. The girl let out a feigned gasp of surprise, and quickly unhooked the caught clip, pulling her top back into place and taking an extra moment to adjust herelf.
“Oh gosh, these silly catches always end up in the wrong place! Oops!” Her giggle was of a playfully infectious cadence that gave the lie to any pretended accident, but she turned back away from him again, grinning and humming to herself as she finished up. A moment or two later she kicked out off the edge of the drop and began to slide down on the supporting pulleys at a quick, steady pace, though not quite as fast as ScorchMan had probably descended.
“On a more serious note... This thing is going to be desperate and fighty, once we lure it out. It's backed into a corner, and it's already hurt. It might be a bit rough on ScorchMan... and as much as I want to help, I'm not really... well, I'm not exactly a combat navigator. I'm going to try to separate the net layers again, from this conflux point, and I've got to contain the Myriad and... get it home again. I can defend myself, but most of the fight, if it comes to a fight, is going to have to be his.” She spoke in calmer, more serious tones again as the molten walls slid by rapidly. For all her flirting, she seemed to flip back and forth between the two moods fairly quickly.
A few moments later, Prose emerged into the open space below, carefully swinging out to avoid the flowing lava and landing on the solid piece of stone near where ScorchMan had landed. As she clipped off and collapsed the rappelling gear back into a data crystal, Griffin was able to get his own first look at the broad chamber. To his view, several of the damaged and mangled pieces of technology half melted in the lava still seemed to be sparking and partially operational, but there was no telling what any of them were meant to do. A heat haze filled the air and probably made it hard to breath for navis no attuned to the space, but for now there was no sign of the spider creature they were tracking; it had to be hiding somewhere in the vast space.
Myriad Hunters [Mission for ScorchMan]
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A rushing sound seemed to emanate from inside ScorchMan's head, separate from the pulse of magma but getting louder the more he picked up speed. Griffin spoke often of adrenaline, a byproduct of stress that could amplify physical ability. Could Navis be capable of the same? He could feel the tunnel about to open up, four-three-two-one, and tucked himself into a pencil dive just as he breached the cavern. Deep in the magma pool, he felt for any sign of the Myriad and its starburst maw. Nothing just yet, but nonetheless he was gentle in pushing off the bottom, the barest scissoring kicks propelling him to the surface, projecting as best he could 'Nothing to see here, just a rock that fell through the bore,' He couldn't hear Griffin, so he was either back with Prose or just keeping quiet. Either one worked for him just fine, he thought as he made his way to the stone ledge and carefully felt his way out of the magma.
Charred black stone, red coal-glow, bright carved slices of molten river: this was ScorchMan's world, his sphere of influence. Most purpose-built Navis had one, a realm of knowledge they embodied, understanding intrinsically as an aspect of self. His Operator was a career firefighter, and so it was that ScorchMan came into this world a personification of heat, a living understanding of thermal energy. As he took in the cavern, ScorchMan wondered if his eyes would ever have made much difference, when it came to this sort of thing. Wondered, perhaps for the first time since the Incident, if he was fine just as he was, if it was correct for him to feel whole and unbroken in this black-red-white world. In this world that seemed to have been made just for him, he felt as much, enough that it took conscious effort to keep his flames low and contained, and not flare himself high to feel the world all the brighter.
While ScorchMan had his brush with existential joy, somewhere upstream Griffin was undergoing a similar expansion of thought (and, it must be said, somewhat of body). A look over Prose's shoulder would confirm that Griffin's window was still hanging around, having let ScorchMan go on ahead. Upon being noticed, he cocked his chin towards the borehole ScorchMan had disappeared down and affected a wry grin. "Ah, they grow up so fast," he chuckled, settling in to enjoy the show, such as it was. In Griffin's mind, a thread was steadily unspooling, and he found himself happy to follow the thread as long as it continued. To that end, he found himself treating the conversation with Prose like any barroom encounter, just letting his interest show and seeing where it got him. To the observant, that considering glance Prose had first noticed had graduated into a look considerably more sure of itself. One might have called Griffin's expression bold, even challenging if they were looking for it.
To that end, the big man let himself be a little insouciant when Prose brought up his fellow firefighters. "Oh, you mean Evan, he of the sun-kissed summer fun? Tell me, was it the scrum shorts and rugby socks, or the surfer-boy edition? Well, seeing as we've got such big fans, I suppose I could beg an autograph off him to send along. Perhaps if I had an address for it to get to? Possibly one with a video-call option...?" He waggled his eyebrows, playing up the blatant cad and letting his glinting eyes do some of the talking, in particular for Prose's 'accidental' wardrobe malfunction. In that moment, it really didn't seem to matter that he was talking to a NetNavi; really, it seemed no different from any other time he'd had a girl flirt with him over video-call, letting the physical barrier serve as a tease in its own right. Chuckling at the Navi girl's cheek (and cheeks, plural), he keyed the follow command and sent his window sliding down the bore with her.
His smile continued on even through Prose's more sobering confessions; any good firefighter knew how to balance work and play. "ScorchMan is pretty new to busting, it must be said. Actually, he didn't even start until after his, uh, accident," he gestured vaguely at his face. "Still, he's got some serious grit, and I like to think we work pretty well together. Plus he gets into it enough I expect Big Ugly will hardly notice you're there, it'll be so busy wrestling ScorchMan. We'll keep you safe, don't worry." It had to be said that Griffin Reim had one hell of a smile. It worked just as well for 'don't worry, ma'am, everyone's gonna get out safe and sound' as it did for 'I have every intention of rocking your world, if you're game for it'. If Prose had a use for both, Griffin was all the happier to offer it up. For the time being, the cavern dropped into view as Prose's gear carried her safely to the same rock ScorchMan had landed. Griffin quieted down, and seeing ScorchMan keeping his fires banked, followed suit by dimming his window light to a soft glow. "Right here, buddy," he murmured to his own Navi, and got a tight grin and a nod back. They were counting down to go-time now.
Charred black stone, red coal-glow, bright carved slices of molten river: this was ScorchMan's world, his sphere of influence. Most purpose-built Navis had one, a realm of knowledge they embodied, understanding intrinsically as an aspect of self. His Operator was a career firefighter, and so it was that ScorchMan came into this world a personification of heat, a living understanding of thermal energy. As he took in the cavern, ScorchMan wondered if his eyes would ever have made much difference, when it came to this sort of thing. Wondered, perhaps for the first time since the Incident, if he was fine just as he was, if it was correct for him to feel whole and unbroken in this black-red-white world. In this world that seemed to have been made just for him, he felt as much, enough that it took conscious effort to keep his flames low and contained, and not flare himself high to feel the world all the brighter.
While ScorchMan had his brush with existential joy, somewhere upstream Griffin was undergoing a similar expansion of thought (and, it must be said, somewhat of body). A look over Prose's shoulder would confirm that Griffin's window was still hanging around, having let ScorchMan go on ahead. Upon being noticed, he cocked his chin towards the borehole ScorchMan had disappeared down and affected a wry grin. "Ah, they grow up so fast," he chuckled, settling in to enjoy the show, such as it was. In Griffin's mind, a thread was steadily unspooling, and he found himself happy to follow the thread as long as it continued. To that end, he found himself treating the conversation with Prose like any barroom encounter, just letting his interest show and seeing where it got him. To the observant, that considering glance Prose had first noticed had graduated into a look considerably more sure of itself. One might have called Griffin's expression bold, even challenging if they were looking for it.
To that end, the big man let himself be a little insouciant when Prose brought up his fellow firefighters. "Oh, you mean Evan, he of the sun-kissed summer fun? Tell me, was it the scrum shorts and rugby socks, or the surfer-boy edition? Well, seeing as we've got such big fans, I suppose I could beg an autograph off him to send along. Perhaps if I had an address for it to get to? Possibly one with a video-call option...?" He waggled his eyebrows, playing up the blatant cad and letting his glinting eyes do some of the talking, in particular for Prose's 'accidental' wardrobe malfunction. In that moment, it really didn't seem to matter that he was talking to a NetNavi; really, it seemed no different from any other time he'd had a girl flirt with him over video-call, letting the physical barrier serve as a tease in its own right. Chuckling at the Navi girl's cheek (and cheeks, plural), he keyed the follow command and sent his window sliding down the bore with her.
His smile continued on even through Prose's more sobering confessions; any good firefighter knew how to balance work and play. "ScorchMan is pretty new to busting, it must be said. Actually, he didn't even start until after his, uh, accident," he gestured vaguely at his face. "Still, he's got some serious grit, and I like to think we work pretty well together. Plus he gets into it enough I expect Big Ugly will hardly notice you're there, it'll be so busy wrestling ScorchMan. We'll keep you safe, don't worry." It had to be said that Griffin Reim had one hell of a smile. It worked just as well for 'don't worry, ma'am, everyone's gonna get out safe and sound' as it did for 'I have every intention of rocking your world, if you're game for it'. If Prose had a use for both, Griffin was all the happier to offer it up. For the time being, the cavern dropped into view as Prose's gear carried her safely to the same rock ScorchMan had landed. Griffin quieted down, and seeing ScorchMan keeping his fires banked, followed suit by dimming his window light to a soft glow. "Right here, buddy," he murmured to his own Navi, and got a tight grin and a nod back. They were counting down to go-time now.
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In the lighter moments of their expedition, Prose's response to Griffin was a grin, that swiftly shifted into a wistful pout. “Definitely the beach-boy edition... but... damn it you're such a tease. I can't do that! I've got rules I have to follow, you know... and sharing any proof of my existence beyond being a happy little easter bunny is right off the table. So unfair! Sorry big guy, but what you see is what you get. Don't get me wrong, I'd love an hour or five under all that... If only you were digital too, huh?” Here she had brightened up back to her flirtation norm and given his viewscreen another wink, but it did seem to be the end of the playful teasing and 'accidental' flashing for now.
By the time they arrived alongside ScorchMan at the depths of the bore, she was all business again, taking note of the surroundings before turning her head to address the fire navi directly. Now she spoke quietly – not quite whispering but with definite quiet caution to her voice.
“Alright... I'm not seeing it yet, but it'll be here somewhere. If we're lucky, it thinks we're still up top. I'm going to check and see which of these machines re still working, and try to work out what they did to make this mess, then start patching it up. I'll be as quiet as I can. See if you can get eyes on wherever it's lairing in here. If it's not above the surface, it'll be close to it. Myriads were structural restoration programs, amongst other tasks, and they don't tend to bother going too deep into their own element spaces, just on instinct. See what you can find, I'd love to be able to take care of the poor thing without a fight, but I don't think we'll be that lucky. If it's actually trying to stay in hibernation until it's healed, that'd be great, but otherwise... try to take it by surprise if you can. If a fight starts, you're going to have your hands full – it'll be desperate and cornered.” Prose bit her lip, looking ScorchMan up and down, then turned her gaze around the molten lava chamber with its dripping streams of magma and melted rock. After another moment she seemed to reach a decision.
“Here... Don't tell anyone I did this.” Before he had a chance to ask what, the diminutive woman kissed her finger tips then jumped up to press them to his navi emblem for a moment. In ScorchMan's senses, the tiny beacon of energy that was his guide pulsed, and a strange, alien sense spread through his chest and out over his body. It was a kind of warmth, in a way, but very different from his own inner fires... it felt strangely consumptive and left him with a sense of wanting to draw in heat and make it his own. The unusual warmth remained alongside his other sensations without overbearing anything else or conflicting... just another layer fading into the background of his existence. From Griffin's view point, if he still had a view of the bunny-girl's back angle, two small pinpoints of red light glowed briefly between her shoulder blades as she did... whatever it was she was doing... though they faded away again by the time she landed back on the ground.
“That won't last long, but long enough. It'll take in whatever data sources you destroy or delete and use them to patch you up. It should help keep you on your feet if it gets messy.” She stood back and looked up at ScorchMan, then nodded once more. “Alright, go see what you can find. I'm going to head that way... looks like there are a few intact bits and pieces over there.” With a last nod, Prose moved to the edge of the rocky platform, then carefully gathered herself to make a leap across to another chunk of rock, beginning the process of navigating the hazardous chamber towards one of the larger pieces of remaining machinery. All around, the heat haze and choking air were stifling and the sounds of lava shifting and bubbling were the only real sounds. The not-quite stillness and not-quite silence gave a back-drop to the pre-fight tension in the air.
By the time they arrived alongside ScorchMan at the depths of the bore, she was all business again, taking note of the surroundings before turning her head to address the fire navi directly. Now she spoke quietly – not quite whispering but with definite quiet caution to her voice.
“Alright... I'm not seeing it yet, but it'll be here somewhere. If we're lucky, it thinks we're still up top. I'm going to check and see which of these machines re still working, and try to work out what they did to make this mess, then start patching it up. I'll be as quiet as I can. See if you can get eyes on wherever it's lairing in here. If it's not above the surface, it'll be close to it. Myriads were structural restoration programs, amongst other tasks, and they don't tend to bother going too deep into their own element spaces, just on instinct. See what you can find, I'd love to be able to take care of the poor thing without a fight, but I don't think we'll be that lucky. If it's actually trying to stay in hibernation until it's healed, that'd be great, but otherwise... try to take it by surprise if you can. If a fight starts, you're going to have your hands full – it'll be desperate and cornered.” Prose bit her lip, looking ScorchMan up and down, then turned her gaze around the molten lava chamber with its dripping streams of magma and melted rock. After another moment she seemed to reach a decision.
“Here... Don't tell anyone I did this.” Before he had a chance to ask what, the diminutive woman kissed her finger tips then jumped up to press them to his navi emblem for a moment. In ScorchMan's senses, the tiny beacon of energy that was his guide pulsed, and a strange, alien sense spread through his chest and out over his body. It was a kind of warmth, in a way, but very different from his own inner fires... it felt strangely consumptive and left him with a sense of wanting to draw in heat and make it his own. The unusual warmth remained alongside his other sensations without overbearing anything else or conflicting... just another layer fading into the background of his existence. From Griffin's view point, if he still had a view of the bunny-girl's back angle, two small pinpoints of red light glowed briefly between her shoulder blades as she did... whatever it was she was doing... though they faded away again by the time she landed back on the ground.
“That won't last long, but long enough. It'll take in whatever data sources you destroy or delete and use them to patch you up. It should help keep you on your feet if it gets messy.” She stood back and looked up at ScorchMan, then nodded once more. “Alright, go see what you can find. I'm going to head that way... looks like there are a few intact bits and pieces over there.” With a last nod, Prose moved to the edge of the rocky platform, then carefully gathered herself to make a leap across to another chunk of rock, beginning the process of navigating the hazardous chamber towards one of the larger pieces of remaining machinery. All around, the heat haze and choking air were stifling and the sounds of lava shifting and bubbling were the only real sounds. The not-quite stillness and not-quite silence gave a back-drop to the pre-fight tension in the air.
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Taking a deep, steadying breath, there was nothing for Griffin to do but ride out Prose's rejection. Rolling onto his back, he breathed deep and let it go with a rueful grin and an, "Ah, well," and that was the end of that. Standing, he finally made to leave the station gym, staring into the holographic PET window as he walked the halls into the bunkroom. Given it was midday, the room was deserted, and Griffin flicked the lights on and took up a desk, emptying his chip folder across the desktop and taking the time to sort them. His easy grin hardened into a more battle-ready baring of teeth, listening intently both to Prose's battle plan, and keeping his eyes and ears primed on the dim cavern. "ScorchMan, light up a little, will you? I need to see what kind of footing you've got," he ordered.
ScorchMan, quiet through Prose's strategy and only startling a little at the touch of his emblem, nodded without a word. As Prose gave him some distance, a venting of flame rose from his shoulders in a dancing pillar, casting its flickering yellow light deeper into the shadows than the lava's ruddy glow could manage. The foreign fire in his chest was strange, but familiar in a way he didn't know how to quantify. Would he have time to examine the feeling before the Myriad appeared? It didn't seem worth wasting time for in the moment, so ScorchMan resigned himself to one more unanswered question, and thought back to the first fight with the rogue program. What had worked, and what hadn't? What might work again, and what would the Myriad be ready for? As he felt his way deeper into the cavern, pillar of flame swaying and dancing overhead, he considered the Myriad's ferocity.
"Griffin, have a Guard ready, will you? And if it thinks it's down here repairing something...be on the lookout for anything, uh, broken," he murmured as he went. Was this entire cavern not a broken bit of Net-space? Hard to gauge what was natural here, if the whole thing amounted to one big stupid accident. While Griffin kept his eyes on the rocky walls, ScorchMan knelt down and dipped his hands into the magma where it pooled at the rocky shore, feeling for where it flowed, what it was flowing through, or around.
ScorchMan, quiet through Prose's strategy and only startling a little at the touch of his emblem, nodded without a word. As Prose gave him some distance, a venting of flame rose from his shoulders in a dancing pillar, casting its flickering yellow light deeper into the shadows than the lava's ruddy glow could manage. The foreign fire in his chest was strange, but familiar in a way he didn't know how to quantify. Would he have time to examine the feeling before the Myriad appeared? It didn't seem worth wasting time for in the moment, so ScorchMan resigned himself to one more unanswered question, and thought back to the first fight with the rogue program. What had worked, and what hadn't? What might work again, and what would the Myriad be ready for? As he felt his way deeper into the cavern, pillar of flame swaying and dancing overhead, he considered the Myriad's ferocity.
"Griffin, have a Guard ready, will you? And if it thinks it's down here repairing something...be on the lookout for anything, uh, broken," he murmured as he went. Was this entire cavern not a broken bit of Net-space? Hard to gauge what was natural here, if the whole thing amounted to one big stupid accident. While Griffin kept his eyes on the rocky walls, ScorchMan knelt down and dipped his hands into the magma where it pooled at the rocky shore, feeling for where it flowed, what it was flowing through, or around.
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While his diminutive guide skipped and hopped her way carefully across the exposed chunks of rock and twisted metal that made up the ruins of the chamber, heading away to one side, ScorchMan made himself brighter and cast a clearer beacon around the chamber, beginning to search for their target.
The quiet of the space was only broken by the more natural sounds of bubbling magma and flowing streams of molten rock cascading from other points overhead, but as ScorchMan dipped one hand into the pool itself and reached out, his heat-attuned senses picked up a nuance that human eyes might miss. On the surface, the lava pool looked mostly still and sedate, but beneath it there was a slowly moving vortex of heat pushing upwards and spiralling outwards from a point that he could discern with a little concentration. It was gradual, but as well as being a spiralling outflow of heat and energy, it was also gradually increasing – slowly but surely putting out gradually more and more heat over time. No wonder this had all gone bad.
If there was a network layer breech, tapped into a deeper source of heat, that certainly seemed like an indicator; thinking back on the fight he'd had with the Myriad previously, it was enough for ScorchMan to realise that if it were anywhere else in this chamber, he'd probably be able to sense its elevated heat, compared to everything else; he couldn't... closer to the vortex, though, it would be much harder to pin down, so it had to be there, if anywhere.
Moving closer, ScorchMan would find himself having to make an increasing number of jumps to cross between one piece of ruined structure and the next, if he wanted to avoid swimming in the magma completely, but it wasn't long before he was able to pick out a single, still mass of extreme heat just below the surface of the magma, not too far away beyond another few chunks of broken building side. It was close to the origin point of the vortex, moving only very slightly in place, but it was definitely the same creature he'd faced before. At the edge of a ledge he would realise that it was actually closer than it first seemed; the mass was surrounded by a fuzzy haze of other heat sources that obscured it; they were much like the swarms of ember mites he'd seen earlier.
Unfortunately, ScorchMan and Griffin didn't have too much chance for any further planning. In ScorchMan's senses, the creature shifted and moved suddenly, stretching up as parts of its body unfolded and rose to the surface as though alerted by something. The blazing column of his light source had fallen over the area where the creature lurked, and now it responded with sudden movement.
On Griffin's screen, he saw the lava swell and rise suddenly, before it gave way to the upward-bursting form of the same massive spider-like creature that had first ambushed Scorch some time ago. There was no careful, probing sneaking from the creature this time; as it cleared the lava, it was accompanied by a sudden swarm of ember mites, flooding out over the lava surface in every direction while the beast itself gave a threatening, hissing roar of sound, like a blast furnace given fresh fuel, to announce itself. Its elongated body and smooth, faintly reflective crimson hide still bore the signs of the injuries ScorchMan had given it previously, though they looked sealed over somewhat, in the process of swift healing. Where previously, the spider-like program had been able to hide the extreme heat signature it put out, now it seemed to be hot all over – not just from the wounds and the hissing gape of its open mandibles.
It leapt up and back, clinging onto some of the raised metal structures protruding from the lava with nine of its legs – the other three still seemed to be damaged and less responsive. White hot magma trails drizzled from its mouth as the swarm of mites scattered and circled. It seemed like the time for sneaking was now over.
-=Surprised Soaker=-
Myriad.F.Seek (Injured, In Lair): 300Hp [Lava] [Close to the lava surface, but perched up and slightly away from ScorchMan, gripping several pieces of rock and metal]
Mite.F.Swrm A: 30Hp [Lava] [Forward and left of ScorchMan]
Mite.F.Swrm B: 30Hp [Lava] [Forward and right of ScorchMan]
Mite.F.Swrm C: 30Hp [Lava] [To ScorchMan's left]
Mite.F.Swrm D: 30Hp [Lava] [To ScorchMan's right]
-=Unwanted Bath-Buddy=-
ScorchMan: 120Hp [Normal, edge of a rocky outcrop]
-=Molten Spider Lair=-
60% Lava [Most of the area is a broad lava pool]
20% Normal [Pieces of building and fallen rock dot the space randomly]
20% Metal [Sections of twisted metal and broken machinery are rarer, but the sections that exist are larger]
Terrain: If you're in the lava, it'll usually take a movement or a feint to climb out, or a movement to jump from one piece of solid ground to another]
-=Battle, Start!=-
The quiet of the space was only broken by the more natural sounds of bubbling magma and flowing streams of molten rock cascading from other points overhead, but as ScorchMan dipped one hand into the pool itself and reached out, his heat-attuned senses picked up a nuance that human eyes might miss. On the surface, the lava pool looked mostly still and sedate, but beneath it there was a slowly moving vortex of heat pushing upwards and spiralling outwards from a point that he could discern with a little concentration. It was gradual, but as well as being a spiralling outflow of heat and energy, it was also gradually increasing – slowly but surely putting out gradually more and more heat over time. No wonder this had all gone bad.
If there was a network layer breech, tapped into a deeper source of heat, that certainly seemed like an indicator; thinking back on the fight he'd had with the Myriad previously, it was enough for ScorchMan to realise that if it were anywhere else in this chamber, he'd probably be able to sense its elevated heat, compared to everything else; he couldn't... closer to the vortex, though, it would be much harder to pin down, so it had to be there, if anywhere.
Moving closer, ScorchMan would find himself having to make an increasing number of jumps to cross between one piece of ruined structure and the next, if he wanted to avoid swimming in the magma completely, but it wasn't long before he was able to pick out a single, still mass of extreme heat just below the surface of the magma, not too far away beyond another few chunks of broken building side. It was close to the origin point of the vortex, moving only very slightly in place, but it was definitely the same creature he'd faced before. At the edge of a ledge he would realise that it was actually closer than it first seemed; the mass was surrounded by a fuzzy haze of other heat sources that obscured it; they were much like the swarms of ember mites he'd seen earlier.
Unfortunately, ScorchMan and Griffin didn't have too much chance for any further planning. In ScorchMan's senses, the creature shifted and moved suddenly, stretching up as parts of its body unfolded and rose to the surface as though alerted by something. The blazing column of his light source had fallen over the area where the creature lurked, and now it responded with sudden movement.
On Griffin's screen, he saw the lava swell and rise suddenly, before it gave way to the upward-bursting form of the same massive spider-like creature that had first ambushed Scorch some time ago. There was no careful, probing sneaking from the creature this time; as it cleared the lava, it was accompanied by a sudden swarm of ember mites, flooding out over the lava surface in every direction while the beast itself gave a threatening, hissing roar of sound, like a blast furnace given fresh fuel, to announce itself. Its elongated body and smooth, faintly reflective crimson hide still bore the signs of the injuries ScorchMan had given it previously, though they looked sealed over somewhat, in the process of swift healing. Where previously, the spider-like program had been able to hide the extreme heat signature it put out, now it seemed to be hot all over – not just from the wounds and the hissing gape of its open mandibles.
It leapt up and back, clinging onto some of the raised metal structures protruding from the lava with nine of its legs – the other three still seemed to be damaged and less responsive. White hot magma trails drizzled from its mouth as the swarm of mites scattered and circled. It seemed like the time for sneaking was now over.
-=Surprised Soaker=-
Myriad.F.Seek (Injured, In Lair): 300Hp [Lava] [Close to the lava surface, but perched up and slightly away from ScorchMan, gripping several pieces of rock and metal]
Mite.F.Swrm A: 30Hp [Lava] [Forward and left of ScorchMan]
Mite.F.Swrm B: 30Hp [Lava] [Forward and right of ScorchMan]
Mite.F.Swrm C: 30Hp [Lava] [To ScorchMan's left]
Mite.F.Swrm D: 30Hp [Lava] [To ScorchMan's right]
-=Unwanted Bath-Buddy=-
ScorchMan: 120Hp [Normal, edge of a rocky outcrop]
-=Molten Spider Lair=-
60% Lava [Most of the area is a broad lava pool]
20% Normal [Pieces of building and fallen rock dot the space randomly]
20% Metal [Sections of twisted metal and broken machinery are rarer, but the sections that exist are larger]
Terrain: If you're in the lava, it'll usually take a movement or a feint to climb out, or a movement to jump from one piece of solid ground to another]
-=Battle, Start!=-