Flashes of energy illuminate the Dungeon's dark floor and walls as a group of Dungeonauts are locked in a battle against a pack of Lizasters. This team seems to be struggling against the last 3 monsters they are facing when a volley of bullets hit the monsters backs.
"Get them !" commands Captain George as he directs the Mercenaries to shoot down the beasts.
Obviously pissed off, the monsters turn around and start to focus on them, but at the exact same moment, one of the Lizasters heads splits open from an axe swing from one of the Dungeonauts.
Now caught in between two enemies, the last two monsters try to survive but are quickly dispatched. After the conflict, the Dungeonauts approach the visibly beaten-down group.
"Thanks for the assist; we would've struggled way more without you," says the man who seems to be the leader of this Team.
"Don't worry, son, it's our duty," responds George. "But it was not puerly out of kindness."
"I can guess that. What happened ?"
"We met an unknown monster on the floor below this one while we were going back to the surface. Sadly, not everyone could escape…"
"Oh, damn, that's... You're going back up, right ? Us too. How about we help each other ? "
"Yes, that's the best thing to do right now. Our Dungeonauts are clearly not in a fighting state."
George looks behind him, seeing the terrible state everyone is in right now; they need to get back up fast.
"And sorry in advance, we have no one able to heal you guys but we can help with first aid, maybe ?" proposes the Dungeonaut, trying his best to help.
"Stand watch while we do that, please," asks George. The Dungeonaut accepts and soon this small zone is turned into a battlefield hospital.
George walks up to the seeming leader of this Team.
"Tell me, son, what brought you here ?" he asks, curious.
"Oh, well, my buddies and I were going to the 6th floor to do some monster cleaning but we decided to test our luck with this floor. I know, pretty reckless, but it turned out pretty good, no ?"
Captain George's frustration could be seen even through his helmet. He wanted to scold severely the young man but at the same time, without them, they would most probably die during the trip back.
"I won't talk to the Bureau about that," he finally says, exasperated. "So don't expect anything more for saving us.
"Of course, thank you, sir !" exclaims the young man as he does a military salute.
George sighs before going to help his men tend to the wounded.
2 Mercenaries tend to Silver, haphazardly putting the bone of it's leg sticking out back in it's place and pouring a good quantity of disinfectant on the wound before bandaging it. Even if it was hurting like hell, Silver contained himself. Another round of bandaging, this time for both of his hands, which were damaged by blocking and hitting the monster, testifying of it's insane durability.
Sarah was using her own powers to try to heal herself but it was revealing that it was harder than she thought. What seemed like a simple back injury was probably much deeper with her starting to lose feelings in her hands and feet. She did not have the knowledge to heal a broken back and her condition seems to only worsen.
In comparison, V didn't seem to sustain that much damage, as she is able to get up and walk around but her stopping at random intervals and puking blood demonstrated that she wasn't unscathed.
But the worst of the bunch was Lin: even if his physical wounds weren't that much worse than V's, his mental state was completely shattered; he was barely responding to anything, acting like a zombie.
Overall, the moral was at 0, even if they technically completed their mission, they had just lost their most important member: their leader, their friend, Armando.
This fact was still hard for them to understand, but at least, thanks to his heroic sacrifice, they managed to all escape alive. This is what they were all trying to tell themselves to not break down.
As the moral is at it's lowest, one of the Mercenaries speaks up:
"U-um, Mister Silver ! Thanks for saving my life back there."
Silver looks up to see one of the Mercenaries tending to him, bowing their head. It's one of those whose helmet he signed, the feminine-sounding one. Was she the one who was about to get killed by that black monstrousity ?
"I just did what I had to do," he simply retorts.
"You didn't'," she argues. "The normal thing to do would have been to let me—to let us—die down there. We are Mercenaries; we are expandables, but you saved me, and Mister Armando, he, he-hic."
Her words got caught in her throat as she started to sob while expressing her gratitude towards her saviors. In reality, she is right. After being a Mercenary for 7 years, Silver knew that another Dungeonaut would have sent their Mercenaries to get killed while they evacuated—the sacrifice of the many to save the important few.
Silver smiled as he patted the woman's helmeted head.
"A lesser Dungeonaut would have left you, but not us—not him. He wouldn't have forgiven himself if you had died for him."
Those words helped comfort not only the Mercenary but everyone.
"I think we're ready to go now," declared George as everyone able rose to their feet. Sarah was placed on top of one of the containers while Silver was sitting on the other, still unable to use his leg. His words seemed to have some effect on Lin as he started walking by himself.
The trip back was still hard, but the burden was alleviated by the presence of other Dungeonauts. At one point around the 5th floor, even they started to fatigue as they fought for far longer than they were prepared. But thankfully Lin's sadness turned to rage as he joined the fray, obliterating monster after monster, exteriorizing all of his feelings.
The caravan is soon joined by other straggler Teams looking to get back to the surface. Thanks to that, the trip got easier and easier. Finally, they reached Floor 0 and were immediately circled by medical staff, rushing them to the hospital.
Soon they were all separated as they were put in different rooms to start treatment immediately. The nurse in charge of Silver takes off the bandage while he is lying in a bed on his leg and grimaces as she observes his wound.
"Is it really that bad ?" asks Silver, concerned.
"It's not pretty, but nothing we can't heal; don't worry, but it could take some time." she answers as she puts on black and gold gloves. "It's probably gonna hurt a bit while I restructure the bone and I don't really have time to put you to sleep, so try to bear with it."
Silver nods and takes a deep breath. The nurse claps her hands three times and puts them just above the destroyed leg and she starts to pour energy.
First, it's not really that bad but as the seconds pass, the pain grows and grows. Silver grits his teeth as he feels his leg reforming into it's original shape. After a minute, the pain starts to lessen as she finishes healing the bone.
"Here, the first part is done. Now, I'm gonna reconstruct the muscles, nerves, and finally the skin," explains the nurse.
She claps her hands twice before repositioning the above the wound. This time it's not as painful but it's a weird sensation, feeling his muscles reform around the bone and everything closing down.
"And there. It's done," says the nurse as she takes off her gloves. "It's gonna take a while before everything is up as it should be. Now, let's get to your hands."
She quickly removes the bandages and projects her energy in his hands, slowly repairing them. After a minute, they seem operational again.
"Ok, perfect. Are you hurt anywhere else specifically ?"
"No, the rest is ok," answers Silver.
"Great. You're gonna stay here until your leg is completely healed, ok ? It should take a couple hours to a day at most. Well, I'll come back to see how you're doing, ok ?" she says as she leaves the room, leaving Silver alone with his thoughts. He sits up in the bed, thinking back about what happened: he was a burden this whole mission. He barely did a thing with the Devil Hounds and was completely useless against the black monster. And worst of all, Armando died while trying to save him.
'He died saving me'
This was the only thought on Silver's mind. Slowly, his body started to coat itself in Mana as his emotions started to go rampant.
'He died because of me. He died because I was weak.'
The stream of Mana around Silver became more and more powerful. He grits his teeth strongly enough to break them and clenches his fists so much that it draws blood.
The image of the monster looking at him carelessly as he was parading Armando's corpse is the only thing on his mind. His rage grows and grows until it boils over.
He lets out a powerful silent scream, his energy exploding, making the whole room tremble. He pants as he looks at his hands.
His colorless energy had completely disappeared, replaced by violet energy. He unlocked his color.