#arvi

Arvi picks up some commotion further down the path. His grip on the charred Posterity tightens. As he rounds the corner, he is greeted by a troupe of taken, wandering aimlessly around the hall. A knight, black and shimmering as the night sky, turns its gaze from a statue and onto the guardian. It shifts, rapidly closing the distance, swinging its giant sword. Arvi ducks and dodges under its arm, his white cape flowing behind him. A flourish of knives flies out, sticking a nearby acolyte in the forehead, another - into its shining eye. Hand cannon starts spewing bolts of arc energy at the knight, at shadowy thralls. A shaking vandal lands a shot at Arvi’s right hand and immediately receives a knife to the chest. The hunter spins around just in time to notice the knight, but not in time to dodge its sword, immediately dying as the taken blade splits his head like a rotten fruit. Splatters of blue exo blood land on columns around, a puddle of fluorescent liquid slowly emerging from the lifeless body. Lance quietly shifts around the corner and reaches out into the Light, seeking ways to recover his guardian.

***

...As he rounds the corner, he is greeted by a wandering troupe of taken, wandering aimlessly around the hall. A knight, black and shimmering as the night sky, turns its gaze from a statue and onto the guardian. It shifts, rapidly closing the distance, swinging its giant sword. Arvi ducks and dodges under its arm, his white cape flowing behind him. An icy edge flies out, pinning a distant vandal sniper to the wall. Hand cannon starts spewing bolts of arc energy at the knight, at shadowy thralls. Arvi dodges several firebolts, throwing out a tripmine at a wide arc. He summons an icy shimmering pick, deflects the knight’s blade, spins and crashes it against the taken’s head. The knight lashes out, hitting the hunter with its backhand. Arvi tumbles and lands on all fours, promptly gets blasted with a firebolt and thrashed by a small horde of thralls.

***

...As Arvi rounds the corner, Lance chimes in visibly disturbed. “There’s a very low frequency spreading along the walls. It was present before, but it’s suddenly intensified”. The hunter could feel the low rumble himself now. The ground beneath starts shaking, cracks forming inside the crystalline walls. As the ceiling starts crumbling down all around them, the guardian and his ghost have no other option but to be crushed under the rubble.

***

...but to transmat out and seek other entrances.

***

...but to run in the hall and dodge under one of the closer benches. The rubble buried them, safely, with just enough air to wait until their ship closes in for a transmat.

***

“...The walls of this vault shall collapse once an interloper is detected. The sensors will be placed here, here and here. In this way we will cover all possible entrances and ensure that rubble and debris inevitably trap them inside.”

“Approved. Finalise the schematics with your teacher and proceed to the Wall of Wishes..”

***

Arvi picks up some commotion further down the path. His grip on the charred Posterity relaxes as he pulls a slightly curved throwing knife and approaches the turn in the corridor, his back against the wall. He carefully extends his hand and examines the room in the reflection of the blade. A band of taken. The hunter starts mapping the room in his mind, counting how many shots to fire and how many knives to throw…

***