Open Requiem.

A gunshot. The piercing sound of gunpowder was in some ways familiar and in some ways not. Mitzi had never experienced gunfire outside of television, but as much as she wanted to look up to see the source of the shot, her eyes were fixed on the crawling beast. Once it had retaliated with its own projectile attacks, the drider realized that staying out of reach was no guarantee for her own safety.

As it approached, Mitzi couldn't be sure if it had actually noticed her or if it was concentrated on whoever fired the bullets. Regardless, purely through instinct, she used the opportunity to push off of the wall and leap on top of the beast, latching onto its head. Once she got there, she didn't really know what to do next. Her thoughts were all scrambled by fear. The tough metallic exterior was probably enough to resist being bitten, or itching at all for that matter, so her fangs were clearly not an option.

Flail as the creature might, Mitzi's hold was strong enough to keep her attached to the machine's head. Part of it was determination, but most of the strength on her grip came from sheer terror. She slowly crawled over to where she expected its eyes to be, where the first idea to pop into her mind was to attempt to block its vision. Would that be enough to divert its aim from the gunman up on the cliff?
 
The creature screeched in annoyance. Trying to shake the drider off of it. It somehow screeched even louder, falling to the ground, trying to slam Mitzi's head onto the ground to try an escape. It gave up. Instead of screeching, it let out a low, humming noise. Several blasts of neon light rained upon the ground, as 5 more of the creature scuttled over the mountain, their mouths lighting up again.
 
Miles instinctively crouched as he saw the beast wheel round. It was a habit born from gunfights; by crouching, you present a smaller target to your opponent. For half a second, he felt silly, until he saw the monster launch a ranged counterattack. As quickly as he could, the gunslinger dropped full prone, letting the cliff act as his shield.

As he waited for the orange rounds to either pass or hit the cliff, Miles opened the cylinder and replaced the two empty chambers with new rounds, then pocketed the old casings to reuse. These new rounds--not that anyone could see them right now--had a matte black stripe near the back end of the brass, and the exposed end of the projectile was crystalline and pointed.

He closed the cylinder and peeked out at the adversary, surprised now to see it grappled by a spider-like demi-human. Clearly an ally in this fight, Miles chose to focus on her later; at that moment, more beasts like it showed up, shooting more energy blasts.

As a split-second decision, he opted to leave his perch. They needed to bug out, and now. They were clearly outmatched with a single beast. The gunman leapt the ten or so feet onto what he hoped was reasonably fresh snow, yelled, "RUN!" to the spider-lady, hoping that she could easily dismount, and that the beast being on its back would give them enough of a head-start.

Miles hurried toward where he last saw the other woman running from the monster.
 
Diana got up, and ran, a larger creature in their midst, barely visible. amongst the now around twenty creatures and counting still crawling over the mountain. It had to have some sort of swirling orange light around it. And, just as quickly as it was seen, it was gone, replaced by just more laser bolts slamming into the mountain, dislodging large rocks. Diana was running up the mountain, sliding over a large rock and twisting her ankle. It didn't matter right at this moment though.


Somewhere, He awoke from his millennia slumber.
 
The order to run was enough to put some clarity into Mitzi's brain. Until then she didn't really know what she was doing, acting purely at the whims of her emotions, until Miles gave her a command. An instruction. A course of action with some logic behind it that she felt like she could trust. Acting on it, she spiralled down along the creature's outer shell until she was a safe distance from the ground.

Once she leapt off of the creature, she bolted in the same direction Diana seemed to be going in hopes that she'd come across the very portal she'd been transferred here from. Requiem was not a fun place to be, and Mitzi wanted out, but the artillery of laser blasts were not making her escape any easier. She was deft enough to avoid any incoming boulders as they tumbled down the mountain, but it was only going to be a matter of time before one of those orange lasers hit her. Fatigue was chipping away at her chances of escape, and there was a pretty good chance one of those beasts were going to catch up if they decided to pursue her.
 
Miles could see the human now, and he could vaguely sense the rapid footsteps of the spider-girl off to his side. As he closed in, Diana stumbled, slipping down the rock she was trying to scale. The gunslinger glanced over his shoulder, and the first beast encountered was closing on them.

The man wanted to buy some time so that Diana could regain her footing, so he holstered his left weapon and drew his right, this one full of his incendiary rounds. He was fairly certain they wouldn't do much to these golems, but he was hoping they were a little similar to animals.

He fired three shots at the ground between the monster and them, and the alchemical fire within the rounds exploded, covering the top of the snow with an intensely-burning gel. Many animals are spooked by fire, and while he didn't think it would drive the animal back or hold it long, Miles hoped it would at least give pause to it long enough to help Diana up the rock and scale it himself. He didn't let himself worry about the spider, as he figured she'd be able to scale the wall with ease.

He holstered his weapon and turned to do just that.
 
Diana scrambled up as the creatures seemed to stop at the fire, looking at it curiously. She didn't have time to stop though, so Diana kept running up the mountain. She saw a large cave. More like a gaping wound in a mountain but she ran for it, hoping it would give them some cover from the horrors in Requiem.
 
Mitzi had managed to reach the top of the wall first and also successfully put a hefty distance between her and the creatures, but she had also worn herself out. She paused for a moment as she witnessed Diana dive into a crevasse on the mountain's face. If the half-arachnid lass had learned anything at all about this place, it was not to count on anywhere at all being safe. There weren't really any other options though. She needed somewhere to catch her breath for a moment or two before continuing her ascent.

Sluggishly, Mitzi too entered the mountain's gash. It at least provided cover from the laser blasts so from that perspective it was safer than being out there. While resting, her focus had shifted to those very blasts as one exploded nearby.

"What's with all the orange lights?!? It's crazy out there!"

Her voice reverberated across the cavern's walls. It then occurred to her that she should turn down the volume. Who knew if anything was lurking in this place too?
 
Miles rushed in after Mitzi, panting loudly. He cringed from the volume of her question and held up a finger to his lips. In a hushed whisper, Miles responded, "I'm not sure, but I don't want to find out!" While the creatures roared on outside, Miles looked around this cavern as he reloaded his guns. In his left pistol, Miles simply replaced the 3 spent incendiary rounds, and in the right, all 5 rounds were armor-piercing now. His last five.

"Does anyone see a back way out of here? I'm not convinced they can't get in, but even if they can't, I don't want to walk back out there and I don't wanna live here for the rest of my life."
 
The creatures heard a gutteral roar, something much.. Larger. They tripped and fell over eachother in fear as they scurried away.

Diana looked out the cave, "Uh, i think they left.." She murmured, looking at the large cave they were in that went deeper underground. "I don't wanna be stupid or anything, but what's down there?"
 
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