Atlas felt the sweat dripping down his back as the Grunts charged toward him at his taunt. He once again questioned his life decisions but forced himself to stay still and face the monsters as they started closing the final ten meters to him. As they grew closer, Atlas bent his knees, and when they moved within five meters, Atlas did the only thing he could.
He took off at a sprint. He pumped his arms and legs as hard as he could as he heard the Grunts behind him. He knew he stood no chance in a fight, but if he could hold out long enough for Big A to finish off the rest of the Grunts in the Horde, he wouldn't need to… Hopefully. With that thought in mind, Atlas kept running.
As the minutes passed, Atlas absently noted that the small group of Grunts behind him had gradually picked up enough to become a full-on monster train. He risked a glance over his shoulder as he cut across the middle of the plateau to try and get a better idea, and he immediately wished he hadn't. There were at least 30 Grunts chasing after him, their screams and moans combining like a horrible siren. The only bright side that Atlas could see came from how his stamina had held up for far longer than his out-of-shape body should support. Unfortunately, he had no idea how long or if it would last.
Mind scrambling as he tried to figure out what to do, he passed by Big A for what had to be the fifth or sixth time, and he felt his heart plummet as he saw that the Titano was close to being forced down by the Grunts. As strong as Big A was, he could annihilate any of the Grunts individually. Even when it had been one against fifty, he had been able to fight them off with ease. The problem was that hundreds were pouring out of the tear. Big A simply couldn't kill enough in each strike to push them back.
At least, not at .01% of his power, he can't, Atlas realized. Knowing he was taking a risk, Atlas pulled his attention from the Titano and split it between running and the crystal still clutched in his hand. He tried to connect with the crystal as he had as the Scenario started, but it proved exponentially harder when he couldn't stand still. Any turns he made to follow the outer rim of the plateau or avoid Big A broke his focus. Atlas also felt that doubling the amount of power he was holding would not be enough to let Big A fight off the neverending Grunts.
"Dammit!" Atlas cursed, as he abruptly stopped and turned to face the charging Tainted, thankful for their lack of speed. He took a deep breath, and with all the focus he could muster, he concentrated on connecting with the crystal. As a pleasant surprise, Atlas found that once he had stopped, connecting with the crystal proved far easier than when he'd initially done it. Within seconds, he had managed it, and though he was not looking forward to the paint, he quintupled it to around half a percent.
Though he tried to brace himself for the pain, Atlas still felt like a lightning-strike victim as the power of the Beyond ran rampant through his body. Atlas tried to stay standing through the experience, but his knees could barely handle his weight. He knew that he definitely wouldn't be able to run until his body fully adjusted. Unfortunately, that time was not something Atlas had as the Grunts rapidly closed the distance he'd created.
"Big A! Help!" He screamed out, even if he didn't know what the giant could do from across the plateau. When he didn't receive a response, Atlas believed he was on his own. Fortunately, that belief quickly proved incorrect as a shockwave blasted through the charging horde, turning them into a spray of disgusting blue-green mist. Atlas looked over at Big A. The Titano gave him the briefest of nods before turning back to the rip in reality.
It seemed to Atlas that his risky maneuver had paid off in spades. Whereas before Big A hadn't been able to keep up with the numbers pouring out of the tear, he now destroyed each wave with a single strike. Atlas sighed in relief, thankful that at least for the moment, he didn't have anything more to do. Without a weapon, Atlas couldn't do anything as fighting up close only put him at risk of getting corrupted, according to Big A. With that in mind, he began limping his way back to the boulders he'd started at to rest, get used to the increased power running through him, and stay out of Big A's way.
Of course, that happened to be when the Scenario bared its fangs once again. Atlas heard Big A let out a shout of pain behind him. Spinning around in surprise, Atlas saw what had caused the giant to shout. Surrounding him in a half-circle stood a group of Tainted, different than the Grunts who had come through the portal up to then.
The new Tainted stood slightly shorter than the Grunts, just under two meters, but that by no means meant they looked weaker. Their muscles, apparent even from the distance Atlas stood, were corded and taut against their scales, and their eyes held a spark of intelligence absent in the Grunts. At the same time, Atlas noticed that the cores of these Tainted shone brighter and harsher, like poison in an old cartoon. He could only assume that whatever powered the Tainted was far stronger in the new ones and possibly made them better at corrupting those around them. Either way, he wanted nothing to do with them. Unfortunately, that wasn't even the most dangerous aspect of the new variety of monster.
No, that honor belonged to the fact that each of the eight Tainted surrounding Big A wore armor vaguely reminiscent of Roman soldiers, sans the helmet, and in each of their horrible clawed hands rested a spear that ended in a barbed hook covered in blood… blood that currently ran from Big A's body.