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As they grinded their way through the underground laboratory, they began splitting up to conquer separate pathways before reconvening. "Like a game," as Ryker put it. For Nyssa though, she decided to expedite the process a little on herself, in a way to let her expend a little less energy.
Instead of taking a skill route, she decided to just transform into a brutal berserker. She grew taller than Titus—the tallest of their group, at a similar height with Ryker—and her muscles swelled. Her pupils morphed into feline slits as she took on a beastman like form. Her skin, though, hardened into plates.
Now adapted to the darkness with her new eyes, she dove forward without the aid of Celeste. She ran forward with the momentum of a freight train, each footstep sent dust flying into the air as cracks spread along the ground. An automaton jumped out at her from the side.
CRACK.
Her fist made contact and shattered its exterior casing. As she followed through with the punch, it whizzed forward, pasting against the wall in a jumble of electrical components. Unfazed by the scene of destruction, Nyssa's eyes flickered and she continued running forward.
Further down the hallway, after she plowed through a room of printers, she met a rhino-sized automaton in a narrow hallway. It unfolded on the other end of the hall, humming to life as light filled its eye-sockets. Pawing at the ground, it let out mechanical snorting sounds as spikes began cropping out of its head and shoulders.
With each spike glowing red hot, Nyssa and the rhino looked at each other for a brief moment. Each took a few steps forward and back at their respective ends of the hallway. Then, as if an invisible starting gun had been shot, they charged at each other.
The hallway shook. The rhino-automaton accelerated like a jet as literal thrusters appeared to help it roar down the hallway. It singed the walls while running forward, each of its footsteps dug trenches into the metal flooring.
Nyssa, on the other hand, faced it head-on without an ounce of fear. As they neared, she stretched her hands out, through the condensing steam, and grappled the metal rhino. Her muscles bulged. Veins popped out. Metal screeched and crumpled. In mere moments, she halted its momentum as its spikes shattered against her armored skin.
Her transformation shifted as she began crushing the rhino with pure strength. Her body reddened, her feline ears shifted into horns, and spikes appeared on her shoulders. Her face, now demonic, smiled as the rhino had been suppressed.
"Nyssa, do you need support?!" Celeste shouted out from behind as her footsteps echoed down the hallway.
"No." Nyssa cackled, opening her mouth as a bright flash of light appeared, exploding outward with a high-pitched screech. Celeste, still at the other end of the hallway, paused and shielded her eyes. Stumbling backward from the shockwave, she felt her ears ring. Stunned in place, she took slow steps to recover and reorient herself to her surroundings.
A pile of melted scrap metal now sat in Nyssa's arms. Tossing it to the side with a thud, she turned away and began running forward, shaking the hallway once more. "Don't worry Celeste, you can rest, I got this area covered."
"Don't tire yourself out..." Celeste called out to her, trailing off as Nyssa's huge form had already melted into the shadows.
The domination continued, even after they finished their branching path. Once she and Celeste looped back to where they had begun, they rested, waiting for the other groups. Not long after they arrived though, the other groups appeared, not to be outdone as everyone had begun exerting themselves more.
"YEEEAHHH BOIII! LET'S GET THIS SHOW ON THE ROAAADDD," Ryker's voice echoed down the hall. He marched ahead to lead the pack, Nyssa by his side. Everyone's blood had begun pumping as adrenaline filled the air. Electra had even started blasting music through a speaker.
With a few of the more calm members still taking pictures, they descended another floor into higher and higher security. The hallways opened up as they arrived further down, truck-sized automatons began appearing more often, and mixed between them, golems built from metallic alloys.
Streams of fire and ice, interlaced by thunderbolts and explosions made way for lasers. Conrad, with his sword now unsheathed, pushed his own strength to another level. Each strike he took bisected an entire swath of enemies. He leapt from column to column, flipping through the air as he repelled punches from golems ten times his size with his barefists.
Nyssa, amped up her previous transformation, turning into a draconic silver-backed ape matching the size of her opponents. Covered in an armored exoskeleton, she went berserk. Wrestling each to the ground before melting them with a breath attack consisting of white-hot flames.
"I don't know if I trust them to get everything..." Angelica sighed as she followed along from a distance. She swept around the area, taking pictures and notes of anything salient. Even the destroyed rubble. Though sweat appeared on her forehead as she worked to keep up with the rapid pace of her seven students, a smile tugged at her lips anytime she came within earshot of the music Electra blasted.
Another couple floors passed, though by this point the flooring had become unclear as they traversed mezzanines and destroyed stairways. Their adrenaline had cooled, but their mood hadn't fallen. Smiles all around as everyone wiped a faint layer of sweat from their foreheads.
"Wait up, wait up, we're at an impasse here," Ryker paused as they faced an imposing set of double doors. The smoke cleared, with it, the last traces from Ryker's attempt to blast through the doors. Electra, having investigated the left side of the door, waded back through the rubble while shaking her head. Conrad, who had taken up the right side, jumped over a rock taller than himself to come back to the group with a similar shake of the head.
"It just leads into the solid earth if we break through the other walls there. And the walls going forward seem to be made of this stuff," Conrad reported, his hands still covered in the dirt and rock he punched through to find his results.
"So we have to figure out whatever this concentric pattern puzzle is..." Ryker stroked his chin. After a second of consideration, he turned to Nyssa. "Wait, do you have any transformations that can get us through this?"
Nyssa shook her head. "I already tested my basic arsenal. It includes a lot of corrosive stuff, but none of them worked. If I just did something imaginary I'd instantly fall asleep I think."
"I see, don't do that," Ryker patted her on the back. "Save that in case we need to escape. We can figure out this puzzle, no problem."