"No... This can't be... I can't die here...". Those were the thoughts that were running chaotically in Artur's mind while he was trying to control himself, forcing himself not move an inch, even a single breath seemed to be a lethal mistake in this situation. Artur was cramped to the wall, feeling the cold hard metal agaisnt his wet back and face, the loud steps were slowly getting louder and louder as the bloody machine approached the corner. Artur, who's heartbeat could be felt all the way to his neck, could notice the bright red light coming from the singular robot eye. Drops of cold sweat were rolling down his immobile face, as if water was poured on a statue, while he was observing the red light approach with his twitchy eye. A sound engine was coming from the machine, ressembling a pulse or breathing, the sound was rythmic and matching the pace of it's steps. It was now standing right next to Artur, one step away from the corner, Artur wanted to run, but the images of the killed anomaly flashed in his mind, petrifying him on the spot. He didn't know if he could escape such a threat, he was afraid at the idea of getting caught, experiencing the same fate as the other anomaly.
The machine clawed it's bloodsoaked metal hands to the corner, ready to jump out at any moment, feeding to Artur's terror. But as soon as the killer robot was about to make its move, a loud collision sound could be heard from a distance, accompanied with a screaming roar, it seemed to originate from a person, which surprised Artur. The scream made Artur suddently snap out of his petrification, allowing him to control the movement of his body freely. With no hesitation, the anomaly started to run at full speed, ignoring the risk of getting caught by the robot and refusing the option to confront it directly. The loud noises distracted the machine only for an instant, it's attention already redirected into the fleeing anomaly. Artur could hear the engine pulse accelerate rapidly as the soldier robot started to chase him with twitchy and unpredictable movements. Instinctevely chosing his direction at the last second, Artur made turns left and right, trying to lose track of the bloodlusted machine, with each turn, making a screaching sound as it drifted from its heavy weight. Artur started to feel the same adrenaline from when he ran from the hunter than briught him here, once again he was angry at the fact that he was powerless, only able to run from the threat, he needed to awaken that streangth once more in order to survive this hellish trial. With a fast movement, Artur took a left turn to a corner, expecting only another crossroad of the maze, but instead, there was a larger area where in the middle was one of the simulated houses that apperared along the walls. This sight brought some hope to Artur as he thought he could take cover inside the house. The construction was an all white house with two floors, a porch and a balcony, some white fake furniture was around the house, making the total look like simulation of a normal family house. Artur was surprised at seeing such an imitation in this place of all but quickly thought that this simulation could be used as a training ground for more realistic scenarios for hunters or anomalies like him.
Artur's breathing started to get uncontrollable as he sprinted in the direction of the house, feeling the killer robot closer than ever, almost reaching out to his arms and legs, ready to catch at any given moment. The anoamly felt as if his heart could give out at any moment, as he approached the porch of the house, he heard another stomping sound get closer to him. Putting his first foot on the porch, a loud engine roar resonated right next to Artur, in less than a second, he took a glance to the right and saw another killer robot, jumping straight at him, reaching with it's metal arm. At that moment, Artur's heart skipped a beat, as he thought that it was too late. But almost instinctevely, Artur lowered his head, dodging in extremis the attack, leaving the machine fly above him, hitting one of the pillars of the porch which shattered by the powerful impact. A combination of plastic and metal shards flew on the ground as the machine crashed at the floor with a loud thud, its engine making a powerful roaring sound, the killer machine screaching as it drifted on the hard floor. Keeping his cool as best as he could, Artur recovered panickly from stumbelling after his last second dodge and ran to the white door, praying for it to be opened, quickly turned the nod and rammed into it, quickly entering the house. With a panicked but quick movement, Artur closed the door behind him, locking it and pressing his back agaisnt it with full force, barricading the entrance with all his might.
Artur's pursuer didn't wait long before starting ramming in to the door violently, punching and crashing at it, soon followed by the second machine who quickly recovered from its crash. Artur let out painful shouts as he felt the powerful collisions through the door who already started to crack and crumble by the intense pressure of the robot's attacks. Knowing that he had only seconds to find a solution, Artur frenetically looked around to find something that could hold the door. The entrance was a short corridor, leading to a well furnished living room, containing multiples tables and drawers, looking heavy enough to barricade the door, but they were too far for Artur to reach without leaving the door unprotected for too long, panick started to take over Artur as bits of the door started to fly from the machines's constant attacks. While still in a frenetic state, Artur noticed at last a large white wardrobe that was close to the entrance door. Without a moment of hesitation, Artur left all his faith to the remaining durability of the cracked door and made a run to the wardrobe. Almost slipping on the smooth floor of the house, Artur caught himself with the wardrobe and started to push it in the direction of the door with all his might, it was heavy and he was already feeling the fatigue of the pursuit getting to him but the adrenaline that was rushing in Artur's blood neglected all the pain and let him move it right next to the door. With one last effort, Artur pulled the white wardrobe to the side and let it fall agaisnt the other wall with a loud thud, the heavy wardrobe was now diagonaly covering the whole entrance, barricading the already broken door. Artur witnessed in horror as the twitchy metal and bloodsoaked arms were reaching out to him through the large cracked holes of the white door, the anomaly knew that it was only a temporary hiding spot and that the killer machine wont take long before trying to find another entrance in order to catch him. Artur took a hesitant moment before taking a step to leave, looking at the terrifying image of the metal monsters trying to reach out to him, still making that ominous engine pulse. He slowly traversed to the living room, covering his face with one shaky hand, trying to calm his respiration and heartbeat, this trial was overwhelming him, but it wasn't the first time where he was in a situation of life or death and he tried to reassure himself telling that he was able to survive this far.
After regaining a mostly normal heart rate, Artur reached the living room, he looked, even with little hope, he still tried to find elements that could of use to him, the goal of this trial was after all not only to survive but also to destroy those machines and understanding that he was far from controling any of that immense strength in this moment, a weapon was his last option. The living was large and well furnished, containing multiple drawers, tables, chair and couches, the sight seemed familiar to Artur, ressembling a fake but cleaned up example of a house in the undercity. The house seemed to be inspired by the decorations of older generations, but the faint light blue neon lights and all white colors reminded of the modern technologies. "Wouldn't have minded to live in one of these... if it was real" thought Artur while touching the hard plastic couch in the middle of the living room. While looking around the room searching for anything that could go as a weapon, Artur heard a small thud come from the other side of the room, he looked over, instantly stopping his movement and breathing, fully concentrating on the source of the noise, it was from the kitchen. With careful steps, Artur started to approach the source of the noise, slowly avoiding the table and chairs, the kitchen was connected to the living room, only separated by a line a counters, Artur was certain that the sound came from behind those counters. While being an all white house, the interior was dark, only lightly illuminated by the neon lights, aligned with the corners of the room. Looking like an abandonned set-up for a movie, Artur felt uneasy knowing that there was something else with him in this room, what if one of those machines was already here when he entered? Artur felt a cold sweat run down his face.
With slow and careful steps, Artur approached the kitchen, on the counter at the corner of the kitchen, he noticed different ustensils, pans and lids were chaoticaly lying around, but he particularly noticed the knife holder that was carefully attached to the wall, each knife was tidily placed in its respectable spot, expect one. With the corner of his eye, Artur noticed that what should've been the largest knife is missing, which instantly put a cold chill to Artur's spine, making him hesitate if he should continue to approach the noise. Still, he knew he couldn't stay here without doing anything, knowing that with the metal monsters that were trying to reach him, time was not a luxury he could afford. With one last careful but fast step to reach behind the counters, Artur was able to see the source of the noise, but before he could react to what see saw, the anomaly felt a sharp object pointing to his chest, instinctively he raised his hands up, cutting his breath, freezing in place. "D-don't g-get any closer!... Please... O-or I'll have t-to use this!". Artur eyes grew wide by the shock, it was a woman, an anomaly, her long dark hair were barely covering her wet petrified face, her emerald eyes were full of fear. She was pointing a large knife at Artur's chest with a shaky hand, the other was tightly close to her chest, with a clutched knuckle. Still with his hands up, he looked at the number on her uniform:
- "42...You're an anomaly... Just like me...", he mumbled, still breathless.
- "W-why are you here?!", she shouted panickly, "You're here to h-hurt me aren't you?! Like everything in this damn place!", the woman's shaking intensified, her voice getting a mix of anxiety and anger. Artur looked at her with surprise for a moment, being at a loss of words in his first interaction with someone in over weeks.
- "What? Hurt you...? No... No, I don't want to hurt anyone." he said, quickly recomposing himself, "On the contrary, I don't want anyone to die in here, we were dragged in to this cruel trial and they want us to kill eachother just for a test? How could they do this... Those monsters.", he continued with a serious and irritated tone.
- "And why should I believe you?! I b-barely escaped those monsters to hide here! What tells me you're not one of them!", the woman's panicked screams were even louder than before, which worried Artur that others machines could hear her from outside. The woman anomaly's body shacked entirely as tears started to form in her fearful eyes. Artur felt a sharp pain as she pointed her dipper into Artur's chest, still with a shaky movement. Trying to show the least aggression possible, Artur slowly put his hands in between him and the woman, making a reassuring gesture:
- "Listen, I know that this is a lot, and I'm just as terrified as you are, but if we want to survive this hell we need to work together, please put the knife down and we'll find a way to get out of this nightmare.", Artur's voice was calm as he tried to reassure the women anomaly, he knew after all that his only chance to survive in this trial was the help of other anomalies. Although he had a doubt about this woman's fighting abilities, he was sure that if they cooperated, they had a chance in surviving this trial. The terrified woman hesitated, her eyes looking down, going left and right, her mind having a noticeable internal struggle to make a decision. With an anxious expression, she looked into Artur's eyes once more, it wasn't hard for him to notice that this woman had already been exposed to cruel situations like these, it pained him to understand that a lot of anomalies must have been in the same situation as her, this thought only brought Artur more disgust to this cursed organization, as well as worry for the fate of the sisters, still out there, in this dangerous world.
When the woman looked into Artur's eyes, she saw empathy and understanding, his calm and soft expression reassured her, enough to make lower her knife, looking down, her long hair covering partially her face, she took a few steps back, letting her guard down, just enough to stop the tension. After a few steps, the woman responded in a softer and less trembled tone, "O...okay, I suppose it's better if... we helped each other for now.", she stopped pointing the knife to Artur and kept it closer to her, holding it tightly to her chest, as a child would hold his toy. Artur felt instantly a wave of relief at the woman's agreement, letting go of some of the tension that cramped his movement. He instantly felt a sense of gratitude for the woman, being the first understanding person since he arrived here, he finally met someone that didn't mean harm to him, only a wish to survive, "Thank you, I know it's hard to trust someone after going through all... of this", he spread his arms, gesturing around him, he felt his breath got funny, knowing the absurdity of the situation, "My name is Artur, could you tell me yours?". The woman lifted her head, her emerald eyes covered by thin strands of hair dark hair hesitently looking at Artur, timidly, she responded, "Hannah... it's Hannah.". Artur knew that a form of trust was hardly possible in these conditions, if he was able to obtain knowledge from an anomaly that understood how to use their abilities, he could summon the same strength he had agaisnt the hunter, that power might be enough to destroy those metal soldiers.
It took a moment for anyone of them to say something, keeping his focus on the objective of the trial, Artur asked, "So Hannah, an idea on how we could take down those machines? I've... seen what they're able to do..." He marked a pause, his expression dropping, remembering the fate of the other anomaly, but the rising determination lifted his spirit enough to snap back to focus, "Before I ended up in here, I was able to use a "strength" to save myself, but it wasn't something I could control. Everything was weird at that point, I can barely even remember it, I didn't feel like myself, like something awakenned deep within me. I tried to use it again so many times but... nothing worked. I know the situation is complicated but that's why I need your help, could you tell me how to use that power? Together we could fight back and survive this trial.", Artur's eyes sparkled with resolve as he waited for Hannah's answer. To Artur's surprise, Hannah's eyes were only filled with fear once more at Artur's words. With a rising and anxious voice, she responded;
- "Take them down? W-we're lucky they still haven't found us and you want to fight those monsters! Are you crazy?!", the emerald eye anomaly accelerated her speech as Artur saw that the woman started to shake, her eyes widening with stress.
- "Hey calm down, I know that it might seem impossible to fight agaisnt but if we use our "anomaly" abilities, we might have a chance", Artur tried to keep his cool, himself knowing that he was slowly being envelopped by panic.
- "What are you talking about?! My channeling isn't going to do anything agaisn't those metal robots! You said you don't even know how to use yours! What makes you even think we have a chance!!", Hannah was screaming, letting her stress out, losing her composure. Artur tried to intervene, anxious about her making too much noise, he tried to tell her to stop screaming, putting his hands in front of him, trying to reassure her, but nothing worked. The emerald eyed anomaly continued her panicked, screaming speech, until suddently, a breaking sound made her freeze, like an animal playing dead when noticed. Both anomalies felt a chill in their spine, as other breaking sounds were heard from the second floor, Artur looked back at the stairs leading to the upper floor, waiting, he had no doubt, the metal soldiers found them. "No... this is it, I'm going to die here, what did we do to deserve this?", Hannah mumbled, covering her face with her hands, resisting the urge to let out another panicked scream. Artur could almost feel her shaking as he standing completely still, trying to not get distracted by the distant breaking sounds on the upper floor.
Artur felt once again that rising fear that appeared in every of his dire experiences, he could feel the intense beating of his heart, the cold sweat run through his body as he awaited the danger. In that moment, he felt the same anxiety as when he stood next to Stell, awaiting the bloodlusted to burst into their refuge and tear them apart. The focused anomaly was still staring at the white pale stairs as he felt a small cut on his cheek, in a split second, he looked to his right and saw a dark metal hand approach his, near centimeters away, ready to grip it with force. Artur eyes widened as in the next moment, he felt that his body moved on its own, nearly dodging the flying hand by pulling himself back, one of the cold metal fingers scratching his left cheek, leaving a bloodstained line mark. As the blue eyed anomaly took a quick step back to Hannah, he saw what attacked him, one of the metal soldiers had jumped through the window, its glass shards flying across the kitchen in a chaotic manner. Artur could see the bright crimson eye staring at him, even in flight, as a predator would to its prey. While the flying robot crashed at the white kitchen counter, along with the bits of the broken window, making most of the kitchen crumble on the powerful impact of the heavy robot, Hannah let out a shocked scream, covering herself to protect her face from the flying sharp shards.
Continuing the relentless attack, Artur quickly saw another metal soldier rush at them, this time from the stairs. With a fast, twitchy, insect like movement, the robot had quickly cornered both anomalies agasint the kitchen wall. Having no other way to escape to, the machine slowly advanced, ready to attack at any given moment. At this point, Artur's mind went blank once more, the blue in his eyes brightening as he loses control of his body, like he was puppeteered by his instinct. As the metal soldier charged, throwing a powerful punch directly at Artur's head, the blue-eyed anomaly swiftly reached his right hand back, snatching the large knife out of Hannah's hands and as his head lowered to dodge the machine's punch, with a powerful strike, Artur stabbed the pale knife at its neck, creating a loud metallic sound. The white knife was plunged so deep into the machine's neck, only the pale handle could be seen. Releasing the handle, Artur pushed the machine back with a kick, leaving dazed for a moment, as it made twitchy movements to regain stability, making a metallic screachy noise, a disturbing imitation of pain.
Before the blue eyed anomaly had the time to plan his next action, he heard a loud shout coming from behind, "Artur! Move!". Still in a trance state, the anomaly did not hesitate and dashed to the side, hugging the kitchen counter. As he stepped out of the way, he felt a strong wind, like a slap to the face. When he looked at Hannah, he was surprised, she was holding her hands front of her in a stance, her emerald eyes were glowing with a bright green light as air was getting vaccumed into a sphere in front of her. Artur gripped the counter with force as he felt himself also getting pulled by the surrounding air. The blue eyed anomaly's eyes widened as he watched as the bits and debris started to circle around Hannah, her dark hair flowed around her tense and serious face, making a majestic scenary that Artur observed from up close. With a loud and powerful scream, the emerald eyed anomaly released the concentrated wind orb, Artur's felt its great force as it past next to him with an overwhelming speed. Ressembling a passing storm, it collided with the bloodlusted machine with a powerful strike, sending it fly across the kitchen to crash through the pale wall, leaving a gaping hole where the machine lied, twitching and shrieking. Artur looked back at Hannah in awe, who let her arms down with a sigh of relief but also fatigue, her emerald eyes returning to normal as her long dark messy hair partially covered her face once more.
The powerfull wind blast had shook the house, only drawing the attention of other soldier robots, who crashed through all the possible entrances of the house, frenetically trying to reach the two anomalies. The slap of wind that Artur felt had helped him regain control of his body, knowing that there won't be other openings for escape, he reached out for Hannah's hand, who was still dazed from her powerfull attack, and ran in the direction of the corridor that was between the kitchen and the stairs. Artur could hear the louds steps closing in on them as they ran right by the pale stairs, along with the heavy steps were the sound of breaking and crashing as the metal soldiers charged at them. As he took a turn to the right in the corridor, Artur saw the white door that let to the back exit of the house, without a second, he charged at the door, releasing Hannah's hand to perfom a shoulder strike, breaking open the door, making him stumble and trip on the ground. As he tries to quickly stand up, he feels his arm being pulled roughly, Hannah, using some of her last bits of energy, helped him stand up again and continue their sprint to escape in the direction of the labyrinth.
"Huff... how did you do that?! That... puff... was insane!", shouted Artur, losing his breath during the sprint, still in disbelief of what he saw in the house. "You really think... huff... THIS is the right moment that I explain that?!". After a short moment, both Artur and Hannah heard the multitudes metal machines leave the pale house, continuing their pursuit in their direction, Artur felt anxiety leaving the only hiding spot available, but he thought that they had a chance of escaping in the labyrinth, at least until the machines lose their trail. As Artur continued to run in the labyrinth, instinctvely chosing the way with Hannah, who was still exhausted from her attack, they felt the presence of the metal robots get dangerously closer to them with each second. Until they take a turn to the right, hearing the machines's heavy footsteps closer than ever, Artur felt something tightening on his torso, with no time to react, he flew from the ground, getting lifted with an impressive speed, in mere seconds, he already reached dozens of meters in altitude, close to the wall's height. Looking down, he noticed the large group of machines turning their, continuing to run in a twitchy movement, passing right by them, turning to another of the countless ways of the labyrinth. Breathless of this sudden experience he finally let out a sigh of relief, seeing the machines slowly disseapear in the maze. With a quick gasp, he looked around for Hannah and noticed her hanging just a little above him, she was entangled in some purple glowing strings, quickly looking at himself he noticed he had the same purple strings, keeping him imprisonned, leaving his arms glued to his body. He struggled a little, feeling irritated that he was unable to free himself, until he realized... Hannah was not moving.
"Relax, she's only unconsious from the exhaustion", Artur heard a mischievous woman's voice coming from above. When he looked up in surprise, he saw a purple haired woman, resting with her legs crossed on the top of the high wall, with an almost seductive smirk on her face.
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To be continued in Chapter 4 : Fight