The Overlord trudged through the catacombs sloppily, only just getting used to moving around again. No one who passed by questioned this of course, instead they bowed deeply in his presence. The dirt halls grew larger and larger until they became a purple metallic surface. The Overlord made his way to the curved door frame. He entered a series of codes in the side counsel, the door slid open. "Hmm..."
The room inside while big only was one room. It was spherical and seemed to be able to house various weapons and explosives from all the empty weapon racks they held. Although the place was slightly off tilt and lights flickered often. Weapons on the ground were smashed and rendered useless. This was one of the many escape pods that launched out of the main ship before the crash. It took years but eventually, the digging unit managed to find one of the lost pods. The impact was made on the solid stone so most of the pod was highly damaged beyond repair, all the emergency weapons had been either lost charge or broke as a result. One prize that came from the pod came in the form of a corpse.
The body was of a high-ranking commander class unit. The crash broke the safety harness which forced the commander to fly out and smash headfirst into a dislodged wall spike. The armor was still intact so he took it as his own but best of all was the weapon the dead held in his arms. It was an XK class world burner type canon, one blast at full charge could easily reduce a large city to an inferno. Of course, this device lost all charge during the battle so it was taken away and placed in the charging bay for the last few years. Sadly it seemed the charging cycle would be far too long to get any results.
Now it was time for more desperate measures. Lifting the cannon up from the charging dock, the Overlord reached into the large cannon's center dock and pulled out a sharp-looking cord. In one instant the demon plunged the tube into his left upper side chest. Blue blood flowed through the tube and into the dead cannon. This action made the demon lord feel extremely weak. He grunted louder and louder as time went on, but after a minute the linking tube forcefully retracted from the body and back into the weapon. The Overlord took a knee to collect his bearing, the vision was blurred and motion became a terrible task to achieve. He decided to stay like this for a while.
"My lord?" A spawn moved in front of the downed leader. He looked both worried and conflicted.
"Speak." He spoke simply but rushed.
"Our scouts have encountered odd new resistance in the forest edge. One black draconic female and more discerning is the appearance of the false lord you spoke about."
"Yes...most interesting...any sign of the Hunter?"
"No sightings as thus far my Lord."
The Lord smiled. Slowly he arose, lifting up the cannon that pulsed a violent blue. "Then it is time to go for a walk. Call out everyone." He said as they made their way out of the pod.
The grunt paused for a moment. "e-everyone?"
The Dark Lord looked back with a fiery look in his eyes. "EVERYONE!!"
___
Three crabs were pushed back with one terrible blow of the Hunter. He roared in defiance, all around him were more drones that fired rounds of plasma into his flesh. Spines sped around to stab at the distracted drones while the android force fended off from the outer force of enemies.
"GET OFF OF HIM!" Spines shouted as another one fell to her blade, they seemed very focused on attacking the Hunter for some reason. While the Hunter was very able to defend himself in his usual form, this savage form is far less coordinated and relied on heavy, slow attacks to fight. This form was meant for giant creatures, not small swarms, but it would take up too much focus to revert back now.
By now the fatigue of battle began to wear down on the young girl, she was really not trained for these situations, and the previous broken rib and burned shoulder were really starting to hinder her fight. But for now, she focused on keeping her savior safe. While she worked on another drone to slice away at she failed to see one crab sneak up from behind and jab the center back, aimed right at her spine. While the blade did little to enter deep into Spines body, it still managed to dig deep enough to graze at her spinal column which severed her ability to move completely.
With a pained yelp, Spines fell to the floor, unable to move with her face down. The crab arched up its swords to deliver the final blow. SLIICE!...The drone made contact but not the intended target.
"SHE'S MINE!" The Hunter yelled at the drone with four superheated blades jammed into his face. Unable to do much in the way attacking, the Hunter used the only part of him unoccupied with fending off the other attackers. The hunter focused his rage from seeing such an innocent girl like Spines suffer so horribly because of his foolish actions. "YOU CAN NOT HAVE HER!" A familiar power boiled inside of the old Hunter, an old power that was lost to memory was starting to emerge. The crab, uncaring, pulled out the swords and tried again to kill the annoying creature. The large wounds inside of him meshed back together almost instantly. His demonic mouth opened wide and unleashed a torrent of black flames that completely obliterated the unassuming crab and the many behind it.
The androids looked to the Hunter and pulled back from their battle. All at once they pounded a fist to the ground and activated a green crystallized shield around them. "Don't hold back Lord Tendrix, we are now immune to the Hell Torrent." Not even thinking about it, the savage demon drenched the whole entirety of the hall with the black flame, the one that clung to him melted away into a growing puddle of purple. The shields protected the allied forces from the extreme heat. Spines kept still, unaffected by the inferno.
Soon every offending unit was no more than bubbling puddles on the ground. The Hunter gasped and breathed out a mouthful of steam. The walls glowed yellow with heat and some panels melted away. The androids deactivated their shields and circled around the beast. The lead of the group slowly bent down and lifted Spines off the ground, she was turned over and looked at the metallic face of the robot.
Spines whimpered and tried to move once again but nothing in her could do so. "I-I can't move...I can't feel anything..." She screamed and groaned a terrible noise of despair. The Hunter stood up and forcefully shifted his form back to his usual self. He came up to her, but one of the androids stood in his way.
"Do not worry General, the damage is minimal, and assuming medical bay is still operation, we will have General Spines in full ability by the end of the hour." The Hunter felt himself fall apart at that like he was holding in his breath in fear. Even Spines felt her face cool. "I suggest we retreat at once to safer grounds sir."
The Hunter nodded, "That would be the best course of action, get her out o-" The floor began to shake violently, the Hunter lost his footing and fell back. The sounds of giant steps filled the air, a whirring noise began to build up in volume. "What is this?!" The entire hall gave out and the group fell into a gigantic room. The Hunter flew down as fast as he could and looked up to see the leader android still holding on to Spines with an iron grip, The two landed safely as with all the others.
Before they could say anything else the room lit up and a towering robot filled the room. It could be no less than fifty meters in height. Its right leg looked heavily damaged and forced the titan to sit but its arms were large and wide, head much like a dome with eight circular eyes. The chest was full of edges but similar to the design of the smaller crab units. It screeched an ear-piercing cry and swiped a giant arm at the Hunter.
He unleashed his tendrils and resisted the attack with all his might, the bots behind him formed a barrier around Spines.
He didn't know how to defeat this thing and protect the crippled dragon all at once but by the gods, he was going to try.