Survival at Any Cost

Morden moved swiftly but quietly to the entrance scanning his surroundings. There was no reason to stay when the only thing inside this place was just some corpses. No matter what they held or who they were, it wasn't worth his life. As he moved, he noticed that the statues were different from before, they were all looking directly at him. There were at least fifty of them, some being three times his height.

Two of the angel statues quickly jumped to the entrance from either side. They moved so fast that Morden could barely follow them with his own eyes. Morden moved to the left side where the Boulder was to break line of sight with the statues. 'If I can land a surprise attack and destroy one, I can use the dust to break the door and leave. There's no rune on it anymore and its just regular stone.'

He went behind the Boulder and sprinted around as fast as he could, but when he reached where the first angel should have been, all he saw was the other angel statue creating a new rune on the door. His heart sank. He didn't know how powerful this rune was, but it was definitely stronger than the last one. He noticed the air shift and a shadow above him. He rolled to the side as four massive fists crashed where he was just standing. Dust and pebbles flew everywhere as the crater reverberated.

Morden, with a single thought, immediately activated the rune he just received that day. This was far too dangerous of a situation for him to worry about how many he had left. He looked around and took in the information. He saw everything as if it was slowed down about half. He noticed that several other statues were making their way to him.

'Shit this is really bad. I need to find a way to get the hell out of here and FAST!' He ran over to the wall right next to him and punched it with all his might. A bright blue shimmer could be seen where the impact was. The entire building shook as dust fell from the ceiling, but the wall was perfectly in tact. Blue ripples continued for about half of the building. 'Shit this must be connected to the rune the statue just placed. Its insanely strong. I need to deactivate it now!'

Morden ran to the statue that had placed the rune. 'Breaking the source might do it. Normally if the creator dies, it continues, but the rules don't apply if its alive... I think.'

He rained down a torrent of blows onto the statue. It in turn blocked many blows and returned just as many. Four arms was quite advantageous, no wonder they could fight demons who were physically superior! With his enhanced senses, morden was able to land several hits which in turn broke parts of the statue. Because it was so old, it shattered into dust with each blow landed. The angel landed several hits as well. A crunching sound could be heard every time a hit landed. After a swift engagement, the angel statue collapsed under its own weight because the damage was too severe. It spoke for the first time speaking in gibberish.

"Angel tongue?" Morden said. "Speak some common! I don't know angel! Only angels know angel tongue!" He stomped the angels head turning it into powder.

Thanks to his angel rune, he was able to see the demon statue behind him, arm cocked back ready to swing. He braced for the impact as the fist the size of his entire body slammed into him full force. He grabbed it with both arms and used the momentum to side step while lifting the statue and tossing it into the door. A blue hue fill the room once again from the rune but this time cracks could be seen like a web all throughout the shield. Confidence and hope shot through him, resurging his adrenaline knowing that all he needed was another good hit and the shield would break.

Morden charged full speed towards the door with both arms prepping to punch at the same time. As he reached the door, four arms grabbed him from behind and hurled him about a hundred feet in the center of the room. He was now surrounded on all sides by several dozen statues. He looked towards the exit and saw the angel statue repairing the nearly shattered runic shield. His heart sank into his chest. 'Is this how I die?' He glanced around, noticing everything starting to slowly go back to its normal speed.

The effects of his angel rune was starting to fade and that would be detrimental to his escape. He immediately activated one of the other runes on his arm. It started to pulsate throughout his body and his body started to expand and grow. He grew to twice his height, standing on par with most of the statues. Several statues charged at his simultaneously. He swung at the nearest statue slamming his fist into its chest and turning the entire statue into rubble. Two angels attempted to restrain him from behind while the rest started pummeling him from all sides. He grabbed the two on his back, one with each hand, and tossed them like feathers to the wind. The two statues were sent crashing against the wall on the far end of the building causing the runes to glow the familiar blue. Morden proceeded to go on a rampage destroying anything that resembled a threat in his vicinity, knocking out dozens of statues.

'I don't have time for this, I need to leave and now!' He charged through the animated statues taking two in each hand and tossed them with all his might at the door. The shield cracked from every direction. He reached the door more cautiously than before as to not be ambushed again. He met no resistance and punched it with all his might. The shield shattered like glass, but then the barrier turned a fiery red.

"Fuck!" He shouted as he covered his face with his arms. The next second an explosion engulfed his entire body sending him flying so fast he was a blur. He crashed through a number of statues along the way and slammed into the mosuleum like structure at the end of the building, breaking through the stone and rolling on the floor. He started to shrink, reverting to his original size.

Morden coughed up a mouthful of blood and quickly assessed his injuries. His left arm was bent backwards at the elbow and his ankle was broken. His jaw was broken for sure and his head was bleeding. 'Fucking angels pretended to fix the barrier but let it mend on its own, putting an explosive rune behind it. Clever little things.' He got up slowly as one of the demon statues charged into the room with him, punching him in the stomach hard enough to lift him in the air and toss him 20 feet back. He fell to the ground and struggled to stand up again. It was difficult to see because it was much darker than the area outside, but Morden could make out a small pedestal in the middle of the room not too far from him. The demon statue charged at him and aimed for his head. Morden ducked just in time and returned a vicious uppercut that turned the statues head to pebbles. Contrary to what he expected, the statue didn't so much as flinch because of its missing head and instead countered him with a left hook. As it crashed into his arm, Morden slid across the room, still standing on his two feet, and crashed against the pedestal. His left arm was pinched between him and the pedestal, causing it to go back to its original place, but breaking it in two more places. The pain caused tears to well up in Morden's eyes.

Two more statues that he didn't notice in the dark came up behind him and restrained his right arm and his head. Morden activated another rune on his arm and it reverberated the air surrounding him and blasting all the statues near him against the walls and several others he didn't see as well. The tattoo faded away as quickly as it was used. With a few seconds of breathing room, Morden check his surroundings to come up with a plan.

'About a dozen more statues left standing, but that doesn't mean they're all dead. The door might be free of runes now, but unlikely. Only thing I can think of now is destroying them all but I don't know if I can last that long. If only Karaia was here we could have made it out by now.'

Morden regretted his decision to explore the ruins, but hindsight was 20/20 and right now was not the time to be regretting. He checked to see if the other statues had started moving yet, but it seemed that most of the nearby ones were broken from the blast. He grabbed the pedestal to help him up and thats when he noticed a slight glow coming from the center. 'Angel rune!' Several statues walked into the room and all started to surround him. Morden needed all the power he could get at the moment, so he grabbed it with his bloody arm.

Right before he spoke the transferring chant, the rune shone as bright as a small sun, revealing all its surroundings. In that split second, Morden noticed that it wasn't just a rune, but a book with a large rune implanted into it. The area around Morden became distorted and everything looked like the heat rippling from a hot surface in the summer, but the temperature did not change. After a few seconds of this display the statue started to close in. Morden tried removing his hand from the tome but his had wouldn't budge, as if it was a part of his body. The effort from the pull rattled around his broken bones and nearly made him pass out from the pain.

He started to panick slightly and activated his last angel rune. This was the one he wanted to save the most. It would pause time temporarily around him, giving him some respite. As soon as he had the thought, not only did everything around him stop, but Morden noticed that it looked as if everything in the world was rippling around his surroundings. Like small waves crashing against nothing, but constantly moving. Immediately everything came to a complete halt. Morden could feel the mark fading. He knew he had less than five seconds.

The activation of the rune seemed to trigger something in the rune book, causing it to turn completely ethereal but also turning it into what looked like a fine dust. The dust flowed all over his body and was absorbed into him. The pain from the transfusion was so immense it caused him to scream out in shock. He collapsed to the ground, completely limp. A moment later, the rune he activated dissipated and he saw the statues start to move.

"Well this is how I die. I guess curiosity got the best of me..." He could feel the assimilation still going on inside his body, moving his bones and searing his flesh. The pain was so intense that Morden simply closed his eyes and passed out.

-

Back at camp

Karaia waited patiently. It had already been two hours since they argued but Morden still had not returned. She paced around nervously wondering if she should go looking for him. But if she did, where would she look? It was a large forest and he wandered off. 'Maybe he got lost. No, Morden can memorize a map in a moment. Perhaps he went back to the colony. He's probably too angry to come back. I'll go look for him there.'

Karaia grabbed the food she brought and left everything else in case Morden returned. She headed back towards the colony hoping to be right.