Steel Burner

Chapter 5;What is it?

Somewhere in the cave, a dark, depressing room held a strange creature of unknown biology. The only light seeping through the bars of the door hinting that the creature was in there. It calmly took in breaths of air at a steady pace.

A closer view of the creature suggested it was chained to the walls with multiple chains around its arms and legs. Many lacerations were visible across the creatures back, chest, and arms, suggesting it was tortured into submission.

The creature roared as it fruitlessly attempted to break its many shackles holding it against the wall. The creature fell to its knees and stayed there in defeat for several moments there before the sound of paws came nearby.

The creature looked up to see a diamond dog staring into the cell. The creature attempted to break the shackles in a feat of rage, finding the will to fight once more. It rapidly jerked its arms forward, intent on ending the diamond dog's life.

"Ah ah ah... That's a bad ogre, and you know what we do with bad ogres.." The dog smiled wickedly.

The ogre immediately stopped and ceased its flailing, staring at the dog with a gaze that could kill the lord of the underworld.

The dog spoke up again. "You will do exactly what I say and we will let you go."

**********

A bloody speared flew into a diamond dogs throat as Grell, Omior, and Vigil rushed through the corridors. Sounds of diamond dogs were heard coming from everywhere as they tried to keep away from them.

They neared the exit when suddenly, all the sounds of dogs stopped. No barking, no howling, nothing. The three stopped quickly, curious as to why the sounds had ended so abruptly. Suddenly, a loud roar came from right behind them, Omior and Vigil turned around just in time to see Grell get thrown into the wall.

Bloody, and covered in bruises and cuts, Grell fell to the floor unconscious. Behind the gremlin was a large, hulking ogre. The ogre had a huge club laying on one of his shoulders as he stared at the two intently, attempting to predict their next move.

Omior carefully let his hand fall right onto his blades' hilt as he got into a fighting stance. Vigil made a poor attempt at looking as threatening as possible, his horn starting to glow in the process.

Omior started to slowly move his foot to the left, as soon as he did, the monster swung his club towards the samurai, screaming in a frenzy.

Omior managed to dodge the ogre's swing, only to be hit by the creatures hand, tossing him back a few feet. Vigil blasted a few bolts of magic at the creatures as it charged him. Vigil was seconds from getting a club to the face when he shot a bolt at the ogre's feet, effectively tripping the beast.

Instead of getting smashed by a club, Vigil ended up being knocked back to the end of the room by the ogre's skull; Knocking him unconscious.

Omior jumped to his feet, blade in hand; he was prepared to take the opportunity to try to harm the mighty ogre while he was down. Charging towards the monster, Omior lunged his sword into the creatures left arm as it was getting up. This resulted in a cry of pain by the mighty beast as he swung his club at the samurai. With a sickening 'crack!' Omior had been smacked away from the beast into the nearby wall of the corridor.

The ogre took a firm grasp of the samurai's sword as he pulled it out, screaming in pain all the while. The monster was just about to smash Omior's skull with his mighty club when Grell jumped onto its back.

Bloody and weak, Grell took his weapon and lunged it into the monster's skull. The beast seemed unaffected at first, not moving at all. When all of a sudden the beast fell to his knee's and then to his side, leaving a pool of blood to quickly form around it.

Grell fell to the ground and limped towards Omior. "Come creature......Pick up pony and let us escape...while...we can."
Without another word, Omior slowly got to his feet. Slowly, he limped over to Vigil, who seemed the least hurt after the conflict.

"Lucky bastard not getting as hurt as me." the samurai grumbled to himself as he picked the pony up and slung him onto his back.

**********Hours Later**********

After escaping the dreaded caves, Grell offered the two a safe place to stay for the time being. After reluctantly accepting the offer, the three headed off deeper into the dense forest.

Thirty minutes passed by in silence as Grell limped ahead of him, Vigil started to nuzzle Omior; This was the last straw, so Omior promptly shook the unsuspecting unicorn awake.

"Wuagh!"

"That's for thinking i'm a pillow."

"U Ah! God! That hurts. Shit! Ow..." Vigil kept yelling as he was placed on the ground.

"So where are we heading?" the samurai asked. Grell immediately stopped in his tracks before slowly turning to Omior.

Slowly, the gremlin responded "We here creature, no need to be anxious."

Both the human and unicorn looked around as Grell just stood there, staring at the two.

"Uh, not to sound rude, but.... what is it that we are supposed to be looking at?" Vigil decided to ask.

"No need be worried pony and creature. This is the gremlin city of Subterra!" Grell proudly announced, pointing to the tree
stump behind him.

"....It's a tree stump." Vigil bluntly announced.

Grell said nothing, he just pulled a root out and kicked the stump, causing it to flick open; A long staircase lead down into a series of poorly lit walkways.

**********

It must have been twenty minutes of walking down the huge staircase before they reached a really old and musty corridor. Grell wasted no time and continued on, expecting the two to follow. The poorly lit and musty hallways started to change; Each turn led to cleaner walls and floors, coupled with better lighting.

After ten minutes of this gradual and subtle change, they reached a large arc in the ceiling that was magnificently sculpted into oversized gremlins wielding spears.

Both of the adventurers were about to continue to follow the small gremlin when he suddenly 'walked out of existence'.
A small wave like effect followed his disappearance and the two started to hesitate.

"Think we should continue to follow and hope for the best?" Vigil said as he turned to the samurai.

Omior put his hand down by his blade and took a minute to think before speaking up. "We'll see. We'll most definitely see."