The group was forced to take a break. They rushed up a giant heap of stone and steel, only to reach the temple; now they had to find the fountain.
No one peered outside, lest they would be shot, but they already knew that another group would reach them soon.
Cain prepared himself to get up. He tried to sit up, but Connie forced him back down slowly.
"You did enough for us. Now rest. I'll deal with them."
...
Cain and the others, exhausted and weakened, huddled in a corner of the room while Connie, Marko, and even Rose were waiting at the entrance.
It was apparent that the enemy were good climbers, in less than 20 minutes their heads popped up above the rubble and they too entered the temple.
Upon seeing Connie and the rest, they stood up and readied their weapons, taking out what seemed to be batons of some sort.
With the sound of a click, the weapons powered up. With electricity flowing through them, sparks of lighting crackled, reaching for the round orb at the baton's tip.
The enemy platoon stalked closer, weapons crackling with electricity. Adrenaline flooded Connie's veins as she sank into a fighting stance. She would protect her men, no matter the cost.
This wouldn't be like outside, where so many lives had been lost. Not this time. She clenched her jaw, muscles wound tight as a spring, ready to erupt.
With both sides ready to fight, Connie cracked her knuckles in delight.
"You lot ready for a thrashing?"
One of the men stepped forward. He was wearing a uniform, same as the rest. Donning a brownish military uniform with suspenders. This man also carried a pistol with a glowing carriage attached to it, the coil inside shooting out lightning that scrapped against the glass.
"Who are you people? Two ships come out of nowhere and find this place; it's odd, isn't it? So tell me, who you are? If you do this can end nicely." The leader was slowly reaching down to his hip.
"Well, we're employed under the Fume Trading Company, who else?! We were hired to investigate the Fountain, you loaf!"
"The company run by Meiers? How the hell did he find out about the fountain?"
Connie crossed her four arms and scoffed. "How should I know? Now are we gonna fight or not?"
"Seems you're just asking for it!"
The man reached for his gun while Connie simultaneously moved toward him. Her hulking body cast a shadow as the man reached for his gun.
A primal screech came from the Huogg as she used one of her arms to knock him away, dropping the gun while concurrently shooting at the ceiling.
Everyone else present also began to fight. Marko was dodging the electric baton and used knuckle dusters to throw a few blows. Even Rose was using a cane sword to push her adversary back, appearing to be playing with him.
Back in the corner, Cain felt his hunger grow. He had never felt such a feeling before.
Cain's stomach twisted and churned as if digesting itself. Muscles withered beneath his skin by the second, flesh sinking into the crevices between protruding bones.
He had tapped out his mist; he used everything he could in enduring those bolts, and this was the result.
His dry tongue scraped against the roof of his mouth, desperate for moisture. His mind fractured, thoughts dissolving into primal hunger. All that remained was an instinctive drive to feed.
Just as he thought he would die from this feeling, like a drop in an ocean, a single whisper saved him.
'If it's nutrients I need, why don't I just take one? Not like the crew counted us, right?'
His eyes glowed as he glared around him. His surroundings were all weakened men, no one would miss.
'Yes, just a taste, and I'll be fine. Just a drop, and everything will return back.'
The whispers continued as his tongue continued to turn jerky; his body required a massive amount of energy to house all his functions. He was given the body of a monster, after all; he had a huge store of 'materials,' but it was now burned through.
'But...I can't kill them, I did so much to save them...I can't kill them.'
As if behind his ear, the whisper chuckled. "Then choose another delicacy. Aren't there people here that will die anyway? Use them to fill your stomach instead, to fill the mist and help your comrades that much longer..."
Overcome by the voice and the instinct embedded into his bones, Cain slowly stood up; his body quickly losing muscle and slowly showing protruding bones.
Connie was in the midst of knocking the enemy's leader silly; he didn't have a chance to fight against her strength, and the power of the batons was nowhere near the power held in those weapons from before.
As she once more threw him into a nearby wall, the noise of creaking of bones echoed the hall.
To her surprise, behind her was a malnourished Cain who seemed to only have his bones and skin left; he creaked as he slowly moved in her direction.
"Holy Sh*t! Cain, are you okay? Cain!"
She ran over to help him, yet he didn't seem to notice her presence; his eyes were locked on the enemy she was just fighting.
Under his breath, she could hear him repeating himself over and over.
"Food... eat... starving..."
"What the hell are you going on about? We have food in the packs. Can you hear me?" Connie reached her hand forward and tried to get a hold of Cain's, but it caused a jarring reaction.
Cain's hand moved with no resistance as it took her hand and pulled. The giant was pulled down to one knee, crushing the ground beneath her.
It was at this moment Cain diverted his eyes to look at her.
Connie saw two jewel-like eyes, one green... and one red.
'Just like before in the office....is this when he isn't messing around? Just what are you...'
Cain let go of her and continued to inch on. As he neared his target, his skin began to fall off, and it looked like his own flesh was beginning to eat away at him.
Blood trickled, and when it hit the cold floor, it hissed and turned to gas, following behind Cain.
The combatant from the Republic looked on, beyond the dust of stone, to see a man who looked like he could die at any moment. Half of his mouth was still, while the other seemed to try and creep up into a menacing smile. It was not a second longer when both the man's arms fell from his body.
"Cain!" Seeing his arms detach, alarm bells rang in Connie's mind as she ran to her comrade. However, she stopped halfway to see them evaporate into nothing.
Tiny filaments of red danced in the air as they entered the leader like fine dust. He didn't move an inch, petrified by the face he now saw. It was the same reaction Cain wanted to reproduce when he was signing the contract with Meiers.
Tears trickled down his face as the pain inside him dulled. His horror soon turned to astonishment as if his view of the face changed.
Cain's expression slackened with relief as the man's body convulsed. Rivulets of blood escaped every pore, evaporating into red mist and streaming into Cain's gaping mouth. With each drop consumed, vitality returned to his empty shell.
Connie looked on in horror seeing this....this deformed ritual. She should stop this, but her limbs wouldn't obey. How could she bring herself to aid the withering enemy? A friend's life hung in the balance.
Swallowing back the bile rising in her throat, she turned away, hating this strange feeling that crept from nothingness.
When there was finally nothing left, Cain hushed a few words. The sound exited his mouth, yet no one seemed to hear it.
"This is why I never over-exert myself. Hah... only a little longer."
Cain suddenly collapsed, and finally Connie ran to help. By now, the fighting had stopped; once Cain made his move, the other soldiers saw what happened to their leader and left before that could happen to them.
However, they would no doubt still be lingering in the area.
Marko's hands trembled as he ran over, though his mind couldn't fully process what he'd witnessed.
"What the hell was that, Connie? What did he do to that man?" Connie just stared at Cain's limp form, at a loss for words.
What could she say? That their friend was some kind of inhuman monster? None of this made any sense.
"I don't know? Maybe it was a response to hunger, he said he was hungry... I... I really don't know, okay."
Connie was in hysterics; what just happened seemed to put a mysterious emotion in everyone's minds, one of confusion and somehow dread of what they witnessed.
Even with the scene they just witnessed, they chose to believe in the one who got them this far. Without Cain they would have long died out at sea, he had built trust with these people long ago.
"Well, he's fine now, right? Let's just wait for him to wake up and ask what happened, okay?"
Marko gave Connie a cloth for her to wipe her tears.
"Okay, we rest until he wakes..."