The Cure - II [Exemplary]

[Proto Man]

Before he had time to regain his senses, Proto Man had an axe swinging down at his skull. Twisting to the left, he threw out a leg, catching the attacking darkspawn in the shin. The monster howled as it dropped to a knee, but a quick blast of energy threw it back into the trees, where it made no more sounds. No sooner had he risen back to a vertical position than various indicators started to pop up on his internal display, alerting him to threats in his proximity.

Little too late for that now.

Proto Man spun around and rushed forward, throwing himself forward as his current track of forest came to an abrupt end a few meters ahead. As he hit the ground, he rolled into a crouch and spun. The barrel of the Proto Buster started to flash as the darkspawn came tearing out of the tree line. Bracing the base of the weapon, the android winced as one of the creatures nearly got within swinging range of its jagged sword.

As the smoking gun arm slung down to his side, Proto Man saw another flash on his internal display. A snarling darkspawn stormed out of the forest and thrust a blade at him, but before it could get close enough to do real damage, a spearhead tore through its back. The blighted monster hit the ground with a dull thud, and Mireya wrenched her weapon free from its corpse. Once she was done, her eyes seemed glued on something behind Proto Man, so the machine slowly turned around.

In front of the pair, the landscape had been deforested (if trees had ever existed at all), and the soil was a strange shade of grey. Far off in the distance, a massive gate loomed over the dead fields. Although it was a little over a mile away, the structure was enormous, and even at this distance, Proto Man could see some of the detail that had been placed into the giant pillars that supported the arch.

“That’s the Black Gate,” Mireya whispered, stating the very obvious. “Never thought I’d wind up standing here looking across the fields at that thing.”

The machine shrugged his shoulders. “It’s just a giant archway now… the real threat is lurking somewhere nearby,” he muttered, referring to the Archdemon whose base of operations was supposed to be located near the landmark.

“Is this where we call for that backup?” Mireya asked as the two started their march toward the Black Gate. At this point, Scylla had to know they were coming, so they had nothing to gain by wasting their time lurking in shadows.

“I’m working on it,” Proto Man muttered as a loading bar in the corner of the screen notified him of the time it would take to properly establish a link with his half-brothers in Coruscant. As they walked, he touched a finger to the whistle hanging from his next. The device was likewise coded properly, so if they were set upon by a large horde, he could rely on it to buy them some additional time.

“What you think are odds are to beat this thing?” Mireya whispered.

Proto Man laughed. “Do you want the actual odds or my personal opinion? I can give you both.”

The half-night elf shook her head. “Nevermind.”