Joy Pursuit: Steel Dragon [Sci-Fi Fantasy | Horror | Action]

The group pulled back to a slightly wider junction where the ice cavern met the lip of the underground lake. There, they formed a loose perimeter around the stationary Spectrolidar Array. The device pulsed in steady intervals—slow, rhythmic bursts that rippled through the ice beneath their boots and fanned outward into the cavern walls. One of the researchers lifted the portable unit and angled it upward, tracing the ceiling for signs of shifting strata or worse, alien life.

The two mechanoids with them were Endymion Kyxxs—a bulkier strain of Hollow, built with heavier frames and modular snouts. For this expedition, each Kyxx had been outfitted with a broad drilling head and a reinforced dorsal conveyor system meant to shuttle excavated material along their backs. Earlier, they had hauled the team's equipment through the tunnels; now, the towering constructs stood braced on either side, their armored bodies forming a protective barrier around the group as the sound of ice crashing into the black water echoed in the distance.

The researchers huddled around the Spectrolidar, as Villo used his Kyyr to create a warm wisp of ghostly green fire, his Kyyr flaring just enough to bathe them in a wavering heat. At the edges facing the tunnel were rangers Thale, Locke, and Kieran, and facing the black water of the lake were rangers Corren, Pax, and Rusk.

Rusk shuddered in his suit, scrunching his face as he grimaced at the horror of an unscratchable itch on his nose.

"Fuck! This day just keeps on giving, huh?" he complained as he desperately scratched at his visor.

Corren snorted. "You got an itch, kid?"

"Duh. My freaking nose is gonna make me break something!" Rusk scrunched up his face.

Pax leaned over from his post. "There should be an internal tendril lining your helmet's inner jaw, it has a control feature in your suits maintenance nodule. If you're careful you could scratch yourself with that."

"For real?" Rusk began to fiddle with his controls.

Time seemed to crawl. With no feedback from the surroundings the only real time scale was the clock on their suits display, but staring at those numbers slowly crawl up was nothing more than torture for the rangers. On the other hand the researchers and Villo had lost themselves in discussing the lakebeds structure, comparing it to previous data sets and murmuring excitedly about the clear signs of life that had sculpted the icy bottom.

Rusk finished fiddling with his controls, the wiry metal tendril easing his nose of the itching misery. "Ahhh… Pax, you're a real lifesaver. How'd you know about that feature? Did you do your understudy work for the engineering force or something?"

"No," Pax replied. "I just got bored one day and read our suit's maintenance manual."

"Oh. Uh… are you into that kind of stuff?"

Pax shook his head. "No… there's just not much else to do."

"Oh right—yeah, you were born here, huh?" Rusk asked. "Have you ever… traveled anywhere else?"

"No… I've only ever known these cramped walls." Pax caressed the icy floor they were sitting on. He exhaled softly. "I became a ranger hoping to get out, but…having locals in the force is encouraged. So here I am."

"Sheesh. Well, back on my homework you could apply for transfer after six months of service. How long have you been part of the force?"

"4 months in… so I'm almost there." Pax's gaze drifted out over the glistening, oil-black surface of the lake.

Corren cleared his throat. "You two better stop talking like that—it rots our luck. Next thing you—"

Whistling.

Villo's flame flickered, shrinking in his palm as every head turned toward the black void of the lake. A needling whistle pierced the air—thin, sharp, and ghostly as it echoed. Then came another. And another. Bursts of keening sound rippled out across the cavern, each one dragging into long, shrill echoes.

Ping.

A researcher looked at the display on the Spectrolidar Array. Her breath hitched, and her expression twisted into unprecedented horror.

A warbling tone ripped through the cavern—louder, heavier, and impossibly deep. It sounded like a massive steel wire warping in a hurricane, a resonant chirp so powerful it sent an awful physical vibration down their spines.

Pax's stomach twisted into a tight, queasy knot, nausea gripping him as a surge of adrenaline and cortisol flooded his brain.

The whistling warped into a violent rumble, the cavern trembling as ice shattered in deep, thrumming booms as the darkness roared.

The Spectrolidar Array erupted into violent beeping, its menacing alarm cutting through the cacophony just as a massive crash of water exploded out of the darkness.

The blackwater suddenly surged in massive waves that crashed into the stunned humans. Only Villo and the Kyxx reacted in time—throwing themselves forward and using their armored bodies to shield the group as the torrent slammed into them and down the cavern's aperture.

"WAA—HUP—H-HELP!" a researcher screamed as the surge of water yanked them off their feet, dragging them by the legs down the icy tunnel. Their voices warped into a hollow, fading echo as they vanished into the roar of crashing water.

Chaos.

The resounding crash was deafening—so loud it stunned their inner ears and plunged the human members of the group into a muffled haze of confusion as the cold water kept crashing down.

Pax clung to the Kyxx with every ounce of strength he had, his free hand wrapped desperately around one of the researchers. Bit by bit, the surge began to weaken, and as the water receded, sound trickled back in—first as a dull throb, then as a rising swell of panicked breaths and distant echoes.

Pax dragged the researcher closer, the ice beneath them so treacherously slick that he had to shove them against the Kyxx's armored flank just to give them something to hold on to. He grimaced as he pulsed Kyyr into his body, an aura of Kyyr sprouting from his back and twisting into 4 ghostly black tendrils. He thrust one upward, driving the tendril deep into the ice overhead to anchor himself. The remaining three lashed outward, gripping onto any nearby researchers still sliding helplessly across the frozen rim. With his hands finally freed, Pax fumbled at the controls of his helmet, fingers trembling as he switched on the thermal visor.

"Styx below—what are those things?" Pax whispered, staring out into the path beyond.

Through the thermal visor, the metal walkway appeared twisted and broken—sections warped, entire chunks missing, but there was something else. Shapes—slightly warmer than the frozen surroundings—littered the mangled grating. Dozens upon dozens of figures lay scattered across the metal, writhing in sluggish motion. They pressed shaky limbs against the surface, pushing themselves upright in jerking, unnatural fits of movement. One by one, they cracked, crunched, and popped as their bodies flexed against the cold.

Pax searched for an escape path, but the tunnel leading back into the cavern was coated in a sleek sheath of water and ice, and at the base of it all was the massive pit.

One of the Kyxx mechanoids heaved itself forward, its drill-head scraping against the metal grating as it climbed back onto the walkway. 4 researchers clung desperately to its dorsal frame, along with Kieran and Rusk.

The shapes lining the broken grating ahead reacted instantly. The creatures—those warm, writhing figures—jerked awake at the vibration of the Kyxx's movements, springing to life with a skittering crackle of limbs.

Pax switched his visor to infrared, the ringing in his skull finally beginning to ebb. The second Kyxx dragged itself up beside the first, plates dripping with lakewater. Hanging onto it were Villo, 2 more researchers, Locke, and Corren.

Pax counted the survivors. Shit! His gaze snapped back to the dark abyss of the tunnel. Commander Thale was furthest back… oh no.

Pop… !

"AGH! GET IT OFF! GET IT OFF! GET IT OFF! GET IT OFF!" a researcher suddenly screamed.

Pax looked back down. There—Locke and Villo were locked in a frantic struggle, trying to wrench a writhing, hairy creature off the screaming researcher. The thing was about as long as the researcher's torso, covered in silicone fur, its entire body had split open—peeling back like a grotesque banana peel as thick, muscular tendrils wrapped themselves around his arms and chest.

A horrid sound followed—

Crrrnch!

Like shattering glass, the man's ribcage caved inward. His body buckled as he collapsed onto the edge of the metal walkway, then with a violent pull the creature tore his visor clean off. One of its many tongues shot forward, burrowing down the gasping man's throat with a wet, sucking twist.

Locke dug his hands into the creature's muscular maw, pulling with every ounce of strength he had.

Villo pulsed his Kyyr into the sharp tip of his shrimp head as he stabbed it. With a heaving rush of his energy, the creature suddenly combusted in green flames, causing it to writhe violently as Villo ripped it off. The creature crackled in the air as it clattered to the ground, its body making a sickly popping sound as it convulsed.

The researcher was dead—lungs collapsed, jaw mangled beyond recognition by the strange creature.

Corren suddenly shouted through the comms. "An adult Carboxarax is in the lake! We cannot move toward deeper water! These creatures are Markrillites—pseudo-parasitic organisms that live in the fur of Carboxarax! They're blind and will leap onto anything that emits heat! Stay away from the water! Use area-of-control Kyyr to fend them off!"

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"Yes sir!" the rookie rangers answered in shaky unison.

Dozens of the strange, eyeless creatures were already dragging themselves out of the lake—tongue-like limbs slapping wetly against ice and metal as they swarmed toward the group with horrifying speed.

Villo stepped forward to unleash his flame, but Corren thrust a hand against his chest. "You can't use your flames here! Not anymore. If more of those things sense anything warmer than the Carboxarax, they'll swarm us in greater numbers." He glanced at the lidar map on his wrist. In the murk of the black water, a massive form moved. "Save up your Kyyr for the worst case scenario."

Villo nodded. "Me and the Kyxx will focus on keeping the researchers safe."

Corren returned the nod, then moved up the metal path, drawn by the sounds crackling ahead. His heart pounded as the grief of Thale's loss surged up his throat—grief he shoved down with force. Kyyr flared through his limbs in a hot rush, strengthening him as he pushed forward into the dark.

The waters surged slightly as something disturbed the water in the distance. Markrillites burst from the murky depths, while others scrambled awkwardly along the twisted path ahead.

Locke thrust out his hand, coalescing ice shards from the lake spray into long, needle-like pikes that he shot out in rapid-fire bursts. Rusk, cursing under his breath, slammed his palms into the ice at the shoreline. Kyyr flared through him as he forced the sheet upward, molding the frozen edge into a jagged, defensive wall. Kieran, meanwhile, stayed at Corren's flank—using his acute Kyyr-infused eyes to catch jumping Markrillites in the air and redirecting them into Corren's Kyyr-infused, sending the writhing beasties skidding across the grating in a flurry of popping and mangled fur.

Pax narrowed his gaze on the shifting shapes through his thermal and lunged onto the metal path, his Kyyr tendrils latching onto the railings as he swung through the air; tendrils slicing through the air as they speared rising Markrillites, spearing them.

The group followed their training, each ranger adjusting instinctively to the others' Kyyr abilities as they held the tiny perimeter against the blind creatures. Wave after wave of Markrillites rushed into them. But it was useless. Blind beasts in the face of those trained by Kyyr and order were nothing more than moving flesh. Sliced, skewered, pummeled, the Markrillites were dying in droves, but they were seemingly endless.

Until—

The skittering creatures froze in place, jumping back into the abyss.

Suddenly, the researcher manning the Spectrolidar lurched to her feet. She scrambled with her comms, fingers shaking too violently to activate the channel. In her panic, she abandoned it and sprinted to the edge of the grating. "GET AWAY FROM THE WATER!" she screamed, voice cracking. "IT'S COMING! THE CARBOXARAX!"

Corren glanced back for a split second—just long enough for time to drag the unavoidable to its absolute limit. The metal path all around him collapsed all at once, the current dragging downward as he and Kieran slipped forward. The flickering white lights along the twisted railing cast just enough light for him to see through the near-transparent water below.

For a heartbeat, there was only a void.

And from it, three clawed tongues emerged, reaching upward from the depths, each one dwarfing him into a barely human speck.

Locke and Rusk shouted something incomprehensible.

Pax staggered back as a massive pointed beak tore through the surface.

The water surged.

Inevitability.

The yawning leviathan swallowed Corren and Kieran as its massive form blasted upward from the crashing water.

Villo and the mechanoids lunged to shield the researchers.

In the chilling black before his end. Corren's thoughts scattered as he came face to face with death. His mind panicked, unable to form a tear in time before everything around him vanished into the gaping throat of the Carboxarax.

Corren felt ever insignificant as the pull of the current dragged him and Kieran straight into the leviathan's endless black.

FWOOOOOOOM!

The Carboxarax breached the surface, its gargantuan beak erupting from the depths with a geyser of blackwater as it slammed into the cavern wall above the tunnel. The monstrous beak groaned like the hull of an ancient dreadnought nudging into the ice with a grinding creak. The wall cracked with little resistance. Veins of fractures shot outward in a spiderweb of white cracks as the ice gave way. Chunks of ice rained down, crashing into the surging water below. It carved into the ice overhead effortlessly, cleaving through meters of frozen mass as if slicing through wet paper. The entire cavern shuddered in response, groaning in agony under the blind leviathan's weight.

Pax was sent flying back, the force of the surge dragging him towards the blackwater depths of the tunnel. His tendrils snapped outward on instinct, spearing into the ice wall and anchoring him just before he could be swept away. He whipped around—just in time to seize Rusk's arm before the current claimed him too. The gush of water was more violent than before as Villo and the mechanoids dug themselves in, limbs and stabilizers slamming into the floor and walls as they braced against the crushing torrent of water.

Right above them, the Carboxarax began to shake; its entire colossal body trembling in rhythmic spasms. A mechanical, bone-rattling vibration tore through the cavern as the leviathan drove its claws into the ice, burrowing into the sheet just above the cavern's entrance. The ice whistled and warbled under the strain, cracks racing outward like veins of lightning as water thundered past them in a violent, unending rush.

Pax pulled against the violent current, muscles ripping as he fought to haul Rusk back. His arm stung; his Kyyr spasming wildly at the tip as the force ripped his arm out of his socket. "AGH!" He unlodged one of his tendrils wrapping it around his arm. Ice shards and mangled metal rushed past them, flushed down the collapsing tunnel.

The Carboxarax raised another limb, ripping into the ice as it vibrated violently, the ice roaring under the weight as its body dragged itself against what remained of the metal path, bending the structure backward until the supports shrieked—then snapped. The path peeled away under the pull of the water, shearing back into the darkness like a ribbon being sucked into a grinder.

"NO! Come on!" Pax roared, straining his Kyyr and his body to keep Rusk from being taken. The warped walkway curled inward, scraping closer, closer, closing around Rusk like a metallic jaw. "NO!"

Another limb burst upward as the Carboxarax dug deeper into the ice wall above. The entire tunnel cracked under the leviathan's weight, sending a fresh bellow of water surging downward. The collapsed path fractured again, splintering into a rain of twisting, jagged debris and—

"NOOOO!" Pax screamed—as the shredded walkway tore down the tunnel in a single catastrophic sweep, ripping through Rusk and anyone still trapped in the current. Rusk's arm suddenly came loose—severed.

Pax could only watch in hopeless horror as more black water thundered down the tunnel, dragging everyone down into the massive pit below. The Carboxarax kept rising from the abyss, seemingly endless, it climbed into the darkness.

Another wave crashed over him. Pax watched in horror as more water flushed down into the black, his infrared flickering as chunks of ice hit him in the head. The visual setting shifted to thermal. The visual noise confused him beyond measure as the only thing he could see was the ever-rising frame of the blind idiot Leviathan.

His Kyyr flickered, weakening as despair closed around him in a suffocating flurry. The rising water dragged at his legs, pulling him downward as the ice above splintered and rained into the black.

Tears welled in his eyes. I never got to see the freaking sky…. Gods! DEMONS ANYONE! Please. I don't care who! PLEASE. "PLEASE SOMEONE! ANYONE, HELP! PLEASE HELP ME!" he screamed into the roaring water. He forced his comms open, switching to broadcast all. "PLEASE ANYONE! SAVE US WE'RE DYING!"

Voices crackled through the static—panicked, confused—but they were distant, uselessly far away. The water pressure rose with the leviathan as the ceiling began to cave, as the massive beast's weight shattered the ice.

"Please." he squeaked.

Pax felt his limbs give way.

The current seized him, dragging him into the hopeless black. The crushing pressure was violent and brief before the back of his head was smashed against the icy walls of the cave.

He had no time to think to process.

The impact instantly killed him as his remains were flushed down into the icy darkness.

Above, the Carboxarax continued its climb, unstoppable and unending. The last thing to breach the surface was the tip of its massive, hairy tail—sliding into the shadows before the cavern swallowed everything back into silence.

The lights from the floating path had all but vanished, swallowed by the churning water. Except for a sinister amber light that flickered in the dark.

"I have WITNESSED it," a coarse voice growled from slightly parted jaws. "Forgive me sweet entropy…" A black-scaled hand cracked in the air as Kyyr began to compound. "Return to me, weak children… Return to me, innocent beast."

The compound Kyyr detonated from the figure. Reality buckled. The darkness bent inward as something pulled harder than any law of nature.

The Carboxarax was dragged back from the darkness, its titanic body unnaturally crashing back into the murk. Water rushed to meet its body as if time itself recoiled in pain. Entropy screeched against Kyyr. Bodies surfaced from the black like puppets rising on invisible strings—humans and beasts alike—pulled from the cold jaws of death as the world's logic was twisted like clay by Calamity's desire.

The massive ghostly leviathan was dragged back into the water as the metal path reformed itself. Humans and beasts returning from the cold hold of death.

"Regression."

Bayren's whisper rolled through the cavern. A massive black spire coalesced in his hand; matter folding inward, Kyyr congealing into a weapon that looked hammered from unstable shadow. He turned toward the abyss, and with a single, fluid motion, hurled the spear into the depths. The impact detonated below. Something vast convulsed in the dark.

Bayren faced the trembling rangers—and the writhing Markrillites crawling onto the metal walkway.

"Recreation," he hissed.

And the Markrillites ruptured. Their bodies burst outward in showers of mangled fur and flesh, and where they stood an illusion of calamity sat. Perfect replicas stood in their place: blackened silhouettes sculpted of pure Calamity, featureless except for the faint metallic shimmer of molten Kyyr. He exhaled, the black apparitions crumbling into drifting soot.

The group watched in awe as Bayren descended down from the darkness, his body traced with molten fissures, bright ember-lines burning through his blackened scales. An ominous Kyyr radiated from him, its energy so pressing, they instinctively knelt before him.

Bayren touched down on the reforged walkway, the amber light of his frame dimming.

Bayren sighed. "No need to kneel. Is anyone unresponsive?"

But no one answered; they all simply stared.

Pax looked at Rusk, his hand once again attached to his trembling body. Locke had a hand clamped over his mouth, eyes wide and unfocused as the memory of frigid water ripping into his lungs replayed again and again through his body. His mind unwilling to accept life as every breath he drew hitched like he was still drowning. Kieran and Corren clutched themselves tightly, arms wrapped around their own torsos, shaking, pale, unable to trust that their limbs wouldn't fall apart.

Bayren lowered his head as he moved through the group, his gaze parting through the crowd until he reached the back where 4 rangers lay unconscious. Breathing, alive, but unresponsive, bound to never wake again. He lowered his head in disappointment. "Forgive me… I didn't make it in time."

The group barely processed his words before a violent rattling tore through the cavern. The sound rose behind them—deep, bellowing, and wet—as blackwater surged forward with renewed force.

Bayren's Kyyr spiked! Calamity constructs crawled out from his feet spreading out into a wall that caught the rising wave. "Oh-ho… It survived."

He spread his constructs creating a warm black mesh beneath everyone's feet. Then, he stepped out of the cavern and with a subtle shift of his body, he surged upward, the air rippling around him as he launched himself into the open cavern. He caught the wall with a rake of his claws, digging deep gouges into the ice as he pulsed his Kyyr through the cavern.

From his vantage point, he spotted the gigantic Carboxarax ahead—thrashing violently, churning the blackwater as it struggled to rip the colossal construct harpoon from its body. The beast's bulk twisted with blind, frantic force, the water frothing around it, massive waves shredding the metal walkway.

Bayren stared at the beast longingly, an ache spreading across his chest. "I finally got to see you… shame."

Recreation.

The water bulged outward with a concussive boom—and the Carboxarax detonated from within. Blackwater filled with bone, fur, and flesh exploded in a flash of Calamity as a perfect construct of the beast burst forth from the explosion. A towering, shadow-forged recreation frozen mid-struggle, its limbs locked in confused agony. The recreation lingered for only a moment before it sank silently into the blackwater below, dissolving as it descended into void.

Bayren lowered his head in mourning, voice barely audible.

"…Forgive me."