And as everyone knows, what follows the romantic scene is the accident scene where the main characters either conceive a child or almost die.
Light appeared at the end of the water pipe signaling them that their ride was about to end and both valhallans suddenly felt as if their bodies had become weightless.
Before falling down.
Below, a mixing pool containing a fluorescent orange liquid collected the waterfall and mixed it with multiple fluids coming out from small pipes on each side of it.
To their right, another waterfall descended directly into a cove of bubbling tree sap and plant matter, boiling the water falling into it instantly.
Matt didn't have time to see much else, not even the layout of this floor, before falling into the pool below. Luckily for him a jelly-like feeling caught him from his fall, unluckily for him, that same jelly stuck to him like a cute SCP-999… that smells like gas and glue…
Being almost completely submerged in it after the fall, Matt attempted to break free only for him to sink.
The more he moved the more he felt like the jelly was clinging onto him and dragging him down into the pudding abyss.
He wasn't scared… maybe a little bit... but he knew that it wouldn't be long until "she" woke up.
Since the time Astrid made her coming out as a sociopath, Matt had done a few tests to understand how her mind worked.
Disappearing for a day, running away from her, talking to another girl…
He didn't torture her or anything, although it might have felt like it to her.
Anyways, he learned a few things and two in particular can be considered "useful". First, when she enters her berserker mode, all her physical attributes double while her instincts get even charper and her sence of pain almost completely disappears.
Second, Matt not being in her proximity or her line of sight will instantly trigger a berserk state in which she will do anything to reach him. Add to that her very good grasp over her newly aquired mutations and you get yourself a reverse SCP-096.
And that was exactly what he was counting on after being separated from her during the fall.
'In exactly 3, 2, 1…'
*ROAR!!!*
'Of course she had to throw a tantrum... It's annoying we can't do this quietly but oh well, gotta let her have some fun from time to time.'
Astrid, who had landed in the other side of the jello pool, leaped up as if the gelatinous substance couldn't restrain her and landed on top of it as if it was solid ground.
Her body had completely transformed into that of a white werewolf with red eyes. The lower part of her trousers got torn revealing long fluffy snow leopard paws that made her a few centimeters taller and kept her from sinking into half solid ground.
A wolf tail could be seen wiggling behind her back and a pair of pointy wolf ears adorned her head.
Even her face had turned into its animal form this time and her cute wolf muzzle was sniffing the air to find her beloved.
*GROWL* "M₳₮₮!!!"
Rushing towards him on the jelly, she immediately found her lover with his face barely above ground and extracted him from it by grabbing his cloak's hood and flinging him out of the mixing pool completely.
He balanced himself mid air and landed onto a pile of scrap but didn't have enough time to take out his weapons as an angered watcher lunged at him with its hind legs ready to tear him up.
Matt couldn't dodge out of the way before a loud crash followed by numerous sparks and grinding noises appeared before his eyes.
*BOOM*
The watcher that was just inches away from his face was turned into a smoking metal carcass laying at his feet.
On top of it stood a dangerously beautiful silver werewolf staring at him in a way reminiscent of the machine that just wanted to kill him.
"Thanks for the save, snowflake." Matt said with a sweet smile, a little apprehensive of the hungry smile plastered on the beast before him.
"I want a reward. Now. " Astrid growled
"Can it wait?"
"No. I said now. "
"..."
Matt sighted but didn't complain about her demands. He definitely didn't expect her to do something like this during their demon subjugation quest, it reminded him of workers going on strike in his previous life.
So he took a step closer to her, finally realizing that unlike before where he was taller than her by a few centimeters, Astrid was now taller than him by just as much.
You could say his pathetic male ego was wounded by this fact but he did his best not to show it.
He looked up, straight into her savage red eyes before letting his hands roam behind her back.
They sensually caressed her smooth fur hiding under her clothes before moving down, towards her tail.
He took great care in delicately stroking her wiggling tail as a small yelp followed by a moan escaped from Astrid.
As he was about to move further down, he realized that the ground they were standing on started to tremble and the dangerous situation they were still in.
He whispered, "Let's carry on with this later. Don't worry, I'll do more than caress you."
The she-wolf made a lascivious smile before feeling the trembling once again.
Quickly jumping off to stable ground, both of them looked back to see the broken box they were standing on previously rise up and push aside the scrap that partially covered it.
Only as the trash and scrap continued to fall off did the duo realise what they had woken up, a crab machine carrier also known as a shell walker.
A shell walker, a crab machine that is usually in charge of moving around large crates. It stands on six spider-like legs that give it high mobility and all terrain movement. Its two malformed pincers held a shield of light projector and a laser rifle.
From the brief notes about its behavior, it usually acts cowardly, preferring to flee with its cargo instead of using its inaccurate weapons to fight off an enemy.
While it's body was lousy in both defense and offense, it did have fast legs and a highly efficient barrier projector similar to the ones they had seen before.
Speaking of which, the crab machine just deployed its barrier and completely protected itself from the duo in front of it.
"Told you this wasn't the time for this…"
"Shut up. How do we deal with him now?"
"It looks old and broken, I doubt it has a lot of energy left but we can't count on that. Other machines might converge here soon so we gotta finish fast."
"Can I go through its shield?"
"Go through? What do you… actually I don't think it's one of those zappy shield walls… you should be free to smash... it."
Not even waiting for him to finish his sentence Astrid lunged at the enemy and dealt a flurry of blows to its shield.
Seeing its defenses get shredded by a bare handed enemy, the shell walker lifted its second arm and tried to shoot the assailant with its rifle.
Sadly for the machine, it's rifle had been in a bad condition for too long and couldn't fire properly. The battery heated up as it charged up the shots before blowing up, hurting the machine and the shield projector that was already getting damaged by Astrid's onslaught.
Now that nothing was stopping her anymore Astrid happily "dismantled" the machine in front of her with very "delicate" blows.
"Astrid! Over here!"
Looking back, she saw her lover signaling her to come to him. So she punched the old pile of scrap in front of her one last time before joining up with Matt.