Astrid's POV :
'Matt left me… I tried following him but he kept on doing those strange movements he does when he wants to lose a pursuer… Now I'm alone… MATT MATT MATT MATT…'
'I told you we should lock him up somewhere… Give me control and I'll get him back.'
'He's the one that protects us!'
'We are the ones that should protect him.'
'Locking him up isn't protecting him!'
'It would protect him… and we would be able to have him for ourselves…'
'No!'
'Poor me… Didn't you just see him run away from us, what if he doesn't come back and flashes back home? WHAT IF HE DIES?'
' No NO NO NO NØ ₦Ø… '
Astrid hadn't taken the same turn as Matt within the server labyrinth and thus found herself continuing on the wrong path until she was met with a dead end.
Her thoughts kept on deteriorating as she distanced herself further and further from her obsession.
'MATT MATT MATT, ɎØɄ ₮ØØ₭ ₥Ɇ ₳₩₳Ɏ ₣ⱤØ₥ Ⱨł₥, ł'ⱠⱠ Ɽł₱ ɎØɄ ₮Ø ₴ⱧⱤɆĐ₴ ₳₦Đ ĐⱤ₳ł₦ ɎØɄ Ø₣ ɎØɄⱤ ฿ⱠØØĐ!'
And as her thoughts changed so did her appearance, her already animalistic form grew and grew, becoming a real giant silver wolf.
Her fur elongated and hardened like deadly needles, her claws and teeth had become stronger and sharper and her overall build and size had been greatly reinforced with both sturdiness and strength.
Strings of saliva escaped the beast's growling maws and the look of sheer hate it released towards the corner gave off a savage and monstrous behavior.
You would definitely not want to approach this three meter tall beast under any circumstances, and yet some stupid robot lizard decided that it would be a smart choice to do so.
Sensing the fiend that had taken her partner away approach from behind, the giant wolf turned around to face it and released a thick bloodlust that didn't seem to affect the machine.
As the bellowback rushed forward while loading its fire breath, Astrid put strength into her hind legs and sprung high into the air.
Seeing this made the machine lift its head and point its muzzle towards the incoming target, planning to roast the leaping wolf.
It tried to open it and spit out the ignited jet of blaze but it's upper jaw was quickly hit by a paw strike from the sky that closed it up just in time to make it guffaw small flames from the sides.
It didn't even have time to retaliate as the wolf hit it with a sharp tail swipe as the latter slashed and pushed it around like a broken toy.
Finally deciding it had enough, it headbutted Astrid's jaeger form before stepping back and spitting a concentrated jet of flames at her face.
Recovering from the previous metal headbutt, Astrid noticed the incoming fire spit a bit late. She dodged to the side, alas not fast enough to stop some of it from grazing her right side and burning parts of her silver fur black and scorching some of her flesh underneath.
Shrieking from pain, the monstrous wolf paw slapped the robot dinosaur and jumped on its back.
She dug her claws into its metal joints and blaze tanks before opening her jaws wide and biting down on the poor bellowbacks neck.
The sound of bone screeching on steel sounded out for all to hear within the server room.
Strangely enough the thing that broke first were not the usually fragile teeth but the solid steel parts within the machine's neck.
Letting one last electronic screech escape after suffering a short but painful agony, the bellowback's lifeless body slumped to the ground, leaking his flammable blood onto the floor and closing its vision lenses one last time.
Astrid, now free from any pesky machine, searched for her hubby's scent and breathing amongst the buzzing servers and vile blaze odor.
She quickly pinpointed him on the other side of the room and immediately rushed towards his location.
'ⱧɄ฿BY HUBBY HUBBY HUBBY…'
As she reached the center part where they had fallen in from, she met face to face with the scorpion robot that looked back at her with its glowing red eye.
Back on the other side of the room, Matt could be seen running away from a giant robot that persistently followed him even while far behind him.
'Shit, it must be heading towards the fight as it wasn't able to find me.
I just have to get there before it does and once I'm with Astrid, I'll just delete the previous checkpoint, make a new one and teleport us out of here.'
Taking a turn, Matt now ran straight through the main alley leading to the central elevator where the fight took place.
As he arrived there, he saw a fight between titans.
A giant wolf was battling against a three legged scorpion drone on a devastated terrain that pointed out how long these two must have been fighting against each other.
Missiles kept on flying out from the scorpions shoulder launcher and hazardly landing near the giant wolf's location.
Multiple claw strikes, tail stabs, charges and kicks kept on being exchanged by the two parties to the point where one lost a leg and many of its armor while the other was covered in burns, cuts and blood.
The battle seemed to have slowed down significantly due to the damage received by both parties. In an effort to finally get rid of the mechanical fiend, Astrid dashed to the right to evade an incoming shot and ran forward.
She gave the scorpion a volley of quick claw slashes that sliced off another one of its legs making it lose its balance before she bit the head clean off.
The machine had been unable to defend itself in that last storm of attacks but, in a last ditch effort, circled around its scorpion tail behind the wolf's back and thrusted it down.
Astrid wailed and whimpered from the pain of getting stabbed from behind as she stumbled around unable to stand up properly from a weight that wasn't there before.
"ASTRID!!!"
As Matt desperately ran towards his giant wolf girlfriend her giant body fell limp to the ground. Her fur along with the rest of her wolf body started to decompose as rotting lumps of flesh, turn into small crystal dust and disappear amongst the stale air.
The only thing left was a young woman still wearing her equipment with a gaping hole in the side of her stomach, it was big enough to reach her spine.
The previously present organs, ribs and muscles were destroyed giving all of the blood in her body a way to leak out.
Matt shakingly took out a bottle and poured the whole contents onto her gruesome wound before taking out another and making her drink it, he repeated the process as many times as he could, using bandages and medicinal plants to hopefully save her.
Sadly, the Valhallan potions only served to reduce the pain, help the healing process or close wounds for an emergency where manual treatment couldn't be given.
An injury like hers couldn't be closed swiftly and the blood kept on flowing out unaffected by the potions and other treatments.
Wailing over the girl in his arms Matt did everything to bring her back, disregarding the blood staining his clothes and using the mess of bandages, herbs and empty bottles strawn around him the best he could, but in the end, he could only listen to her dying breath.
Until her breath was no more.
1260 words
(I am so sorry, please don't hate me (Yet). Next chapter tomorow to treat the pain.)