---

The first Thrall was cut down within seconds, body stumbling backwards and futilely reaching for the ceiling. The second soon joined it, her heavy blade cleaving it nearly in two and sending it flying across the room, dispersing almost before it even hit the ground. Even as she felt their weapons cut into her flesh, she kept up the assault. A few flesh wounds wouldn't kill her, and pain was not something she entirely minded.

The Revenant grabbed the hilt of her blade with both hands, as she finished an upswing, putting all of her force into the next strike, she slammed the entire thing into the next thralls midsection. As soon as the swing finished, she rolled backwards to put some distance between her and the thrall swarm. Odd, her body felt lighter? Did one of those neanderthals do something? Well, at least they could make good decisions in the midst of combat.

"Keh, weak little playthings aren't you." She took a moment to catch her breath, though still maintaining her aggressive stance. As soon as they'd get close, she'd cleave all of them in one sweep of her blade.

---

Delmina saw the incoming sludge and saw it best to avoid trying to guard it. Maybe if she had a larger shield, she could take it, but right now, even if she guarded, she would still get him by some of it. Instead, she dodged the projectile and quickly took stock of her surroundings before activating her veil. She wanted to make sure nothing was close to her when she prepared this, so only f the coast was clear, would she finish charging and plunging her ivy veil into the ground, and wit not even a second later, dozens of blades burst forth from the ground, erupting beneath the Grime and impaling it through its entirety. Though this may not kill it like it would lost thrall, it should hopefully disrupt the flow of the bile inside the creature enough to keep it from launching another attack.

Unlike the scrap of queen iron that Bridget swung about, Diamond’s pipe wasn’t all too effective against even lost thralls. While she did manage to kill one thrall with her pipe, it was only due to the fading remnant of her Slugger Gift and the damage it had already sustained from her light automatic. At least most of the Lost had been cleared out, allowing the girls to focus their efforts on the grime slime.

Bridget’s newfound ability would serve her well as the last few remaining lost swarm her. Five charges right at her, surely slowing the slash of her blade had she not have gained enough space to ready her strong attack, cleaving four of the five in half. The last one was at the very end and suffered only a large gash across its chest, but it was nearly dead now. He would swing his blade towards Bridget’s face, but hit or miss his fate was sealed. Regardless of how the final lost was dealt with now all that remained was the grime slime.

As the giant ooze shot its second blast at Delmina, she would avoid the impact but could still feel the weight of the projectile as it had shook the rubble near her. The vacuous venom was so potent it was even melting the cement and rebar it landed against. How a revenant fairs against the same attack would be terrifying to learn first hand. Still, this gave Delmina an opportunity to charge a drain attack against the creature. With its minions defeated its slow and sluggish attacks could only hit the revenant warriors if they were truly careless. Delmina’s blades would pierce through the Grime Slime, doing noticeably more damage than the bashing of the pipes or the tiny bullets from the automatic. However that didn’t stop the Grime Slime from charging up its next attack. But surely a combined offensive will do enough damage to finish off this beast.

... This was frustrating, to say the least. The pipe in her hand couldn't even kill more then one lost thrall, and that was when it was already hurt. Nearly about to throw the thing in frustration, she saw the weapons of the defeated lost lying about and got an idea. Picking up a one handed weapon, she switched to a backhanded grip on it and her pipe before rushing to the ooze and plunging both into it's gooey form. Letting go once the weapons were properly impaled, Diamond backed off and repeated the process, picking up another weapon, rushing in, and impaling it again before backing off. She would keep this up until she either ran out of weapons, or the thing died.

---

The heavy blade slammed into the Thralls. The rusted weapon cleaved into their midsections, slicing all but the last nearly in half. Bringing her blade back around, she cared not for the stinging pain of the creatures weapon as it dug into her flesh. Her blade had already been brought back around, and with a mighty upwards swing, she had sent the pathetic creature flying into the air, landing a few feet away before promptly dispersing into ash.

She watched Diamond rush towards the Slime with her pipe - picking up a weapon from one of the thralls in the process. Hm, well, she wasn't entirely stupid then. She did her work, taking care of most of the Thralls, so she didn't feel entirely inclined to help them finish off a single larger than normal Lost. Instead, she placed the end of her sword on the ground, leaning on it slightly as she observed the rest of the fight.

"Keh, you guys are slow aren't you?" She grunted. "I'm surprised you haven't turned into lost or died already yourselves."

---

Delmina's eyes went wide at the acidic mass of sludge that hit the concrete where she was standing but a moment ago. If it could melt through cement and rebar like that, she was glad that she or her shield didn't get hit by it. Delmina cast the thought aside however, she wasn't hit with it, so it didn't matter. Instead she noticed that it seemed her drain attack did noticeable damage, and with Diamond on some odd sort of rampage that she could only describe as creating the largest pincushion she had ever seen, She decided to help by going a bit more offensive as well. She rushed forward towards the slime and then dashed into an attack with her shield, bashing it into the slime for blunt damage, and then chaining a quick drain from her veil once more. She didn't give two thoughts to her other companion who seemed content to just watch the rest of the show while they worked to finish off the strangely oversized grime.

Diamond's surprising onslaught was doing notable damage to the Grime Slime, not because the individual strikes were doing much, but because she was piling upon many attacks. The slime spilled some of the acid from it's mouth, staggering it just as Delmina slammed her shield into it. It too didn't do much damage, but thanks to Diamond's onslaught the drain attack pierced right through the Grime Slime and dispersed it into a harmless mass of purplish goo. Not long after the remains of the lost and the slime dispersed. It would be some time before they would reform, allowing the three a moment of respite.

Near the Grime Slime was the source of the faint red light. It appeared to be a some sort of digital key-card, covered in ash. A quick search of the room would reveal a smaller room containing a relatively fresh looking corpse of someone who might've been through here before. Some poor revenant, now turning lost, curled up underneath the counter. The body was unresponsive to any interaction, even killing it, but nearby the body was presumably his equipment. A standard issue government bayonet rifle, a few throwing daggers, and more chemical lights. Aside from this room there was another hall opposite of the one the group entered, which would lead further down into the tunnel's depths.

---

It was a disaster.

Courage, strength, and skill could not help you when the stupidity and cowardice of others acted far more hastily. Many of the other revenants who went with you in the first group were jaded and apathetic. They would ignore your calls to stick together or in a group and proceed into the darkness. Barely ten minutes out pass before disaster struck. Screams and gunfire could be heard as the revenant thralls were attacked by some sort of Lost. You could hear it loudly crashing through the walls, smashing things apart and killing the thralls. Worse still, the Lost had managed to strike the bomb on one of the thralls. It's ability to go off at tampering was not because it was a technological marvel, but due to it's unstable craftsman ship. Without the right know-how, even a blow from a lost was enough to trigger the explosion, turning the unfortunate revenant into ash as well as collapsing the tunnel. And if that wasn't bad enough, the resulting shockwave collapsed the floor as well, sending the first group of revenant deeper into the earth.

Despite the chaos, Ambrosio was somehow alive, but alone. He could barely make out the level which he fell from, only that he had somehow fallen into what appears to be the actual railroad tracks where trains and such would be. It was surprisingly somewhat lit here; there were dim red lights on the ceiling, perhaps some sort of emergency light from days gone past? Either way it put everything in a dark but visible red hue. So far there was no signs of Lost or the other revenants you were with. There was only forward. Immediately ahead of you was a subway train cart that sat still and lopsided due to time and erosion. In a tunnel to the left appears to be a small hall crossing leading to another set of railroad tracks, one that weren't quite as affected by the explosion upstairs.

---

Delmina picked up the key card, and much like last time, prepared her shield when going through the door. Upon seeing the corpse on the ground, she put one bullet into the dead revenant's head, just to be safe. Even in this stage, she has seen a turning lost attack before. There seemed to be no reaction however, and upon giving the inside a clean sweep, top to bottom, it seemed they were safe, for now. Delmina holstered her gun and picked up the bayonet, offering it to Diamond. "Do you still need another weapon? I also found some throwing knives and more lights... I think this is our only path deeper in..." she told the two. Despite the chaos of the last fight, Her face, voice soft spoken, and even her demeanor seemed to be just as tranquil as when she walked in.

Delmina looked to Bridget, noticing her injuries. Without asking, because she knew the girl would probably make some snide comment either way, she charged her Ichor's Blessing, and having not been injured herself, was able to direct the ichor's healing energy to Bridget. Due to the nature of the gift, it completely drained her ichor, which may not have been full but was doing well after only a couple gift uses and two drains, hopefully causing the healing spell paired with her prayer shaw's light gift boost to heal her completely of her wounds. "There, that should help. Shall we continue?"

"Well, I guess that solves the loyalty and skill problems." Ambrosio stood up, shaking off some rubble and dusting his gear off. He checked his mask for any damage, seeing none. "Mask is still good, how about my veil." He looked down and nodded as his plating was virtually unscathed. He tested his ability to drain attack, finding a bit of comfort in his self-created hounds. He gave one a pat on the head as if it were a pet before letting them return to being his cloak.

His bardiche and shield lay off to the side, knocked loose from his grip during the fall. He walked over and picked up the polearm, inspecting its shaft, seeing nothing but scuffing. The blade was much the same but with a few scratched from previous unlucky owners. His shield was worn but sturdy and still easily held, so he figured all his gear was sufficient for most purposes. He wanted better gear, but the ones who sent them here seemed disinterested in thralls actually having success.

Looking toward the two choices, he sighed. "Decisions and choices. Let's follow the tracks. Perhaps a station will lead back up." He set off down the path with tracks, heading towards the intersection to see about possibly tracking back up.

"Finally!"

Happy to see her new strategy actually doing something, Diamond kept at it until the slime dispersed into goo. Sitting down for a moment to calm down and recover her stamina, Diamond couldn't help but grin as the ooze around the pile of weapons dispersed. Watching as Delmina picked up the red glow and dusted it off, Diamond thought back to her last ditch effort to do some damage. That had been awesome. If she could find some sharp and lightweight weapons to carry and do that with, it could become an effective option in her arsenal.

Upon seeing Delmina find a door, Diamond got up and started looking through the scattered weapons of the defeated lost, hoping to find something better then her previous pipe in case another fight broke out. Picking up anything sharp, light, and in good condition, she weighed her options as Delmina wandered back over with a bayonet. "Do you still need another weapon? I also found some throwing knives and more lights... I think this is our only path deeper in..."

"I'm thinking of grabbing something a bit lighter, so I'll take the throwing knives. They might come in handy as both a weapon and a tool, if they're in good condition." Taking count of how many there were, Diamond looked at the condition of each and secured the best looking one to the inside of her sleeve with the wire she had grabbed from earlier. "I'll be fine with moving once I've replaced the pipe they gave me with something that'll actually do some damage."

---

Bridget watched impassively as they finally finished off the slime. Well, seemed like they could kill something even as weak as they were. The revenant exhaled, hefting her sword back over her shoulder as she cast a glance over to Delmina as she picked up what was laying on the ground and pilfered what supplies she could from a nearby storage closet. At least Delmina seemed to be able to keep her cool. She half expected the soft voiced one to screw up. A pleasant surprise, at least she supposed, that was even more baffling since apparently she somehow used her gifts to heal her.

"...keh," Bridget smirked lightly under her mask. "You're not as stupid as you look." She might have disagreed with it, but she wasn't crass enough not to acknowledge goodwill turned towards her. "Thanks, but don't expect me to do the same, choco." Bridget harrumphed, glancing over to Diamond. She wasn't going to stand around and wait for her to get her bearings. Didn't want to waste any time and give the idiots above any sort of excuse to detonate these bombs.

"If you two are done being dead weights, then get your asses moving." The smaller revenant moved towards the darkened hallway that lead deeper in. "I'm not waiting around."

With loot and supplies secured, the trio could continue through the area. Again not much here aside from the ruins of an older time. There were even less lost corpses here than the larger station, and all of them were quite dead. The tunnels almost felt like they would stretch on for miles as they walked until eventually they would come across and notable sight. It appeared to be a large hole in the wall, but not one formed as a tunnel or man-made structure. It looked more like something had broken the concrete and burrowed through. There was a single piece of plywood serving as a makeshift door which could easily be opened or destroyed, and inside was a small den of sorts. It had a bedroll, an oil lantern, and the real treasure: a six-pack of unopened beer, though it was missile a bottle. Seemed like this was some sort of revenant hide-away.

Further inspection of the bedroll would reveal a few scraps of paper inside as well. They appeared to be a crudely drawn map. It was mostly just a bunch of lines connected to scribbles, but it wouldn't take long to realize that the lines were the subway tunnels. And apparently there were a lot. But it would reveal some relatively important locations. Continuing down this tunnel will lead to another station that appears to have a staircase going up and one going down. The stairs going up led to what appeared to be a some sort of flower, while the stairs leading down led towards a black tear drop. Aside from that following the path backwards, the previous room the trio was in was marked with a bold letter L and then a large bold X, while that continued towards the gate you were all pushed through labeled G. You'd find similar markings if you followed through other tunnels, though there didn't seem to be any immediate ways to connect to them based off this map.

---

Ambrosio continued onwards and went towards the intersection. The miasma was surprisingly thin here; while still risky to take off one's mask apparently there aren't a lot of Lost here. He'll find a whole lot of nothing unless he's interested in rocks and twisted bits of metal, but soon he'd hear a noise up ahead. It sounded like voices. Young voices. There was only a few seconds to hide before the voices would make an appearance: two children. One of them was holding a light automatic while the other had a sack on their person. "Yazzy I'm bored. We've already been through here like a million of times. Still the same old cans and grease as always, why do we have to go so slow?" This voice sounded like a young boy. The one with the gun grunted, sounding like a slightly older boy. "We haven't survived this long by being careless and I know I heard that explosion nearby. It might just be another collapse, but until we check it out we don't know what might happen." Neither of these boys had any sort of illumination with them, but their masks appeared to be equipped with some sort of lens that glowed a faint green light. The one with the gun looked around and started walking in Ambrosio's direction, watching out for any dangers but he doesn't seem to have actually noticed the revenant yet.

Amrosio was not in any state to desire conflict with potentially innocent children. So, he stayed hidden, keeping his presence as concealed as was reasonable given his equipment. He wanted to observe them and see if they would be hostile to him. If not, he might talk to them and ask about any path to the upper levels. Given their use of weapons not seeming to be fitted with a drain mechanism, they were unlikely to be revenants, so Ambrosio was especially cautious as humans tended to be skittish around revenants.

His body, due to his long time honing his muscles and physique, could handle all this crouching and hiding, but his desire to keep moving forward and acting ate away at his patience. He needed to stay still and not make a move, so he was in internal conflict between his nature and the practical aspects of his situation.

---

"I wouldn't say throwing oneself into a mass of lost to be quite the example of intelligence... I am a healer, not a veterinarian. Try to be more careful before it is you who becomes the dead weight," Delmina said as she set the bayonet against the wall and picked up a couple extra sticks of light. As they continued on, Delmina spotted a door, seemingly man-made instead of a result of damage to the railway. Upon carefully opening it and peeking inside, she made sure that everything was clear before moving in. She was careful not to disturb anything, wanting to make sure she left as little a sign as possible of her presence here. However, there was something that caught her attention.

"Hmm? There is a map here," she called quietly to her group. Fromthe look of it, the L and X stood for the lost and the grime creature they made contact with, the gate they came in through being just behind it. She burned the map into her memory, remembering all the main paths as she didn't want to leave whoever this person was without. as it is, they will probably survive longer than they will at this rate, especially if they came back empty handed. "I wonder... I am not sure what this flower would mean, maybe a mistle? But this here," said pointing to the tear drop shape, "Do you think this would be a blood bead?"

---

Bridget merely laughed at Delmina's assertion. Well, the choco had some sass to her. Amusing, at least, but she didn't comment further. She didn't want to get caught arguing if a lost decided to jump them, but all things considered, her action had been the correct one. She had taken the brunt of most of the lost attacks, preventing them from jumping the other two while they handled the slime. Sass, but no intelligence.

Soon enough, they came to what seemed to be large hole in the wall with a makeshift living space inside it. Hm...was someone living here? It looked like it had recently been inhabited. That meant there might be hostile Revenants living here. She followed Delmina in, keeping her eyes open for any sign that the housings owner was still around.

"...beer, huh?" Bridget walked over, picking up a bottle and smiling slightly. "Ah...well, haven't had any in awhile, heh." One of the ears atop her head involuntarily twitched as Delmina said something about a map. Pocketing the alcohol, she stood and looked at the map the other revenant had found. It certainly seemed like it would help. The subway tunnel was extensive, considering this was a pre-collapse construction, she wasn't too surprised. The most important locations to note was the tear-drop shaped structure and the flower.

"Only one way to find out." Bridget harrumphed, snatching the map up. "Lets check the flower first. If it's a mistle we could use it. I'd rather not get into another fight without one." Unlike Delmina however, Bridget had no qualms with taking anything. Finders keepers, as they say and if they weren't here and didn't protect their own stuff, that was their owners problem.

"If you two are done being dead weights, then get your asses moving." The smaller revenant moved towards the darkened hallway that lead deeper in. "I'm not waiting around."

Guess miss grump miser wasn't giving them much choice on when they were moving. Picking up her pipe and a random weapon, Diamond hurriedly put the pipe away and did her best to catch up while carrying her new broadsword. After some time traveling, the sight of the makeshift door peaked Diamond's interest, though it wasn't enough for her to approach it carelessly. Watching the tunnel as Delmina explored the nook, she took some of the wire from earlier and tried to unbundle a few strands, only to put it away when she heard Delmina say something about a map.

Wandering in, she took a peek at it and nearly laughed. That was a map? If she hadn't known any better she could have almost sworn it was just some childish scribbles. Heck, it looked like it had been drawn by one too. Regardless though, after a few comments exchanged between the other two, she realised it truely could be genuine, and that made it useful. Just as Diamond went to grab it and take a closer look, Ms grump miser snatched it out of Delmina's hands. Though she had a point about the mistle, her attatude was still pretty annoying.

The path towards the flower, based off the map, was just a long walk down the hall. If there was nothing else the trio wanted to do the trip was painfully uneventful; there wasn't even any lost corpses to attack. Just rusted bits of metal and broken concrete. The most notable thing during their walk would be coming across old graffiti in black paint. Most of it looked like some old faded gang signs, with the only clearly legible piece of graffiti was the open that looked like a giant penis on wheels. Aside from that eventually the crew would arrive to a larger area, similar to the previous location where they fought the Lost.

This area didn't have any lost however, though still in a fairly bad shape. However there wasn't a thorn of judgement here piercing out of the ground allowing access to the upper levels. There was another set of stairs that went down, and from the old signs on the walls these staircases led to the actual part of the subway that would lead to the train tracks. There was another hall up ahead though where it would lead, the map didn't show as this currently location was at the very top of the makeshift map. There was another kiosk here that was locked shut, with various gouges into it's metal door to show that brute force hasn't been successful in opening it.

---

Ambrosio won't have to wait long before they continue to move on. They walked in the opposite direction you came, with the larger boy planting a few objects on the ground. "Alright, let's go home. I don't wanna run into Salome." The two would leave, moving fairly quickly for their small frames. It looked like the boy with the gun had dropped tin cans with some sort of device strapped to them. Their crude construction would remind Ambrosio of the very bombs strapped to his chest. The child had planted land mines here, possibly to deter or even slay any wondering Lost who wouldn't be paying attention to such things. If Ambrosio wasn't careful, he may trigger them himself.

---

Well, this was annoying. Bridget growled lightly, narrowing her eyes at the area they had arrived in. No obvious mistle, or bloodbeads. Or anything useful looking at all, really. At least they hadn't been jumped by any more Lost. Small blessings, she supposed. Shifting the weight of her sword, Bridget walked over to Kiosk. Looks like someone had tried for a while to rip it open, huh. She had half a mind to try herself but instead turned to her companions.

"...keh, maybe the mistle is behind here?" She grunted. "See anything useful or should we move on?"

Diamond just kept quiet and followed along behind her two other groupmates, but wuth not much happening on the path to their destination she found herself getting restless. So when they got to the wide open space, she looked around for anything to actually do, only to turn around when the grump spoke up.

"...keh, maybe the mistle is behind here?" She grunted. "See anything useful or should we move on?"

Raising an eyebrow, Diamond smirked. "Meeehhhhh. What would be the point of locking up a mistle? Something is probably in there though, since somebody decided it worthwhile to give that much of an effort on getting in." Looking around, Diamond took notice of the stairs leading up again and made her decision.

"Don't know about you two, but I think I'm gonna go check the surface. Stayng in the dark isn't exactly how one keeps a sun tan." She joked before heading off.

---

Delmina followed the others as the pushed forward, a little irked that they took the map, as if it more information than could be memorized, she only hoped that the person who made it had a good idea of their own map as well. The walk was quite uneventful, much to Delmina's liking. A boring walk was a safe walk. When they reached the spot that the map indicated with a flower, she looked around noting the lack of lost here as well. She wasn't as concerned with the locked door, without a key of some sort, it didn't seem like there was a way through. Though, with a weapon the size of what Bridgett wielded, she doubted it would hold if she tried hard enough. She instead looked around for anything that could be linked to the drawing of the flower in the map. Any higher and they would be in uncharted territory, any lower and they would be continuing through the subway, which had seemingly been explored. If the person who was hiding here was a revenant, they must have found some source of blood beads, or else they would have turned already themselves, and the signs of life seemed quite recent.

"If what we found was a revenant hiding spot, and if they were here for any extended amount of time, they would have needed to find blood beads at some point, which would have to be on the map." she started. "I would suggest searching it before trying any new paths. As for the kiosk, I don't think it would be mistle, but maybe something of interest. I wouldn't imagine that a simple metal door could hold up to a large weapon as yours, but it does look like the brute strength method has already failed. Unless we find a key, we may not know."