Ruins

Nero walked slowly and carefully along, his eyes darting to take in his surroundings while avoiding the hypnotizing sunset above. This place was very obviously some kind of Ruin, a shallow Valley whose wide cracks opened up to the sky. The place was a couple of miles wide and packed to the brim with strange crimson sandstone structures that were now toppled and broken, most likely from the impact... He saw that everything was very old looking, even down to their cracked centres, Nero saw that the stone was eroded and old as He took the sandy rock into his hands to survey it.

It was dead silent amongst the ruins, it was getting colder too... but strangely, He felt relatively warm his entire body felt hotter than normal, not in an uncomfortable way, more like His body temperature was rising to defend against the coming and frigid cold.

Nero wandered further, stepping over the shattered stone and clumps of sand and unearthed soil... until He stepped on something that groaned in pain. Nero jumped backwards, wide-eyed and panicked as an Arm raised from the rubble slowly, Nero stared at it with horror and fascination, for this arm was anything but human.

Three fingers felt lazily at the air, the smooth, tough-looking Orange-Red forearm and bicep waved, it's owner clearly buried very deep in the sand, crushed by the heavy rubble, as if this wasn't weird enough, another arm slid out, not the adjacent left side that He would have expected, but another left arm, same as the one in front of him now, only this one was just beneath its twin and slightly smaller.

Whatever the owner of these arms was, He saw it try and fail to struggle to the surface, it's long, thin body, only partially surfacing, Nero could not see it properly, He didn't think He wanted to, the only other thing he got out of whatever this... Thing was a quiet whisper, partially muffled by the dirt and stone on top of it

"K'lilik, Zatak... Yrden." The creature whispered in a strange, clicky voice that faded almost as soon as it uttered it last words, it's armed immediately slumping down, completely still

"It's dead?" He thought, Nero, wanted to get the hell out of there, like right now, He was about ready to sprint away, to find somewhere safe but... He heard something else.

The unmistakable sound of heavy, booming footsteps came from another part of the Ruin only a little ways away, Nero immediately ran, ducking behind the remains of a shabby stone wall, his breath heavy as the footsteps got closer and closer, He didn't why he was hiding, but He had this shaky feeling in his gut that made his instinct rattle inside of him.

Whoever... or whatever was moving around out there, stepped heavily only about a metre away, Nero clung to the wall knowing that something very, very dangerous was on the other side.

The steps stopped for a moment, Nero could hear something that sounded like breathing, but it was far too deep, far too slow, and the shallow whistling that blowing into a metal tube would make, that accompanied by the quiet, eerie ticking sound, it was what convinced Nero completely and wholly that whatever it was, it wasn't anything even remotely normal.

He was sure that it would find him, hear his heavy breathing or thumping heart, but with a few more seconds of ticking and icy breath, the heavy footsteps began to move away from Nero, the booming sounds moving further with every second.

Now a normal person would have taken the Out that they were given and ran very quickly and quietly on a foot train the fuck out of dodge, but Nero, probably delusional and partially hysterical, made the fantastical decision, to peek around the edge of the wall to see just what He was hiding from.

Over by some rumble a little ways away, Nero spotted a dark, shambling man, draped in what looked like a tattered black cloak that obscured the majority of his body, save for the smallest hint of his black boots and... small stubby protrusions sticking out from the hem of his large hood

"Horns!?" Nero thought, watching the large figure shamble along on his heavy boots like a giant shadow, Nero's curiosity was getting the better of him already, but those horn-like stubs, that is what made Nero decide to follow the Figure, at a distance.

Carefully creeping through the Ruins, tracking the figure in black by the sound of his heavy footsteps that echoed loudly in the Valley and the subtle ticking sound that the Figure let out constantly. Nero was afraid, trembling slightly with the strange feeling of terror that resonated eerily with his growing instinct, but Nero pressed forward in spite of this, following the Figure as it prowled around the Ruins in a circle, almost as if He were looking for something.

"What is it searching for?" Nero thought to himself as He watched the large Figure turn over a massive fallen wall that must have easily weighed at least 200 pounds, Nero was liking this thing less and less, it had been moving around in that awkward stumbling fashion for about half an hour now, Nero was getting even more anxious "He's combed through half the ruin now, when is he gonna find what He's looking for-" Nero paused, the figure had stopped and He was staring at something.

At the end of a long, relatively clear path of rubble was a broken and blackened obelisk, sat next to the only sandstone building that wasn't laid to waste, that being a tiny little circular done like shelter. Nero thinned his eyes, focusing hard so that He could try and see what the Figure was staring at, and He did, He saw it, another tattered figured was slumped against the Obelisk, Nero couldn't quite make out what they looked like, they were too far away, however, He could see that the top half of the Obelisk had fallen on it, there was enough stone on top of them to crush a person with ease, but the Figure's breath deepened, the ticking sound getting louder as it trudged forward awkwardly.

Nero followed the Beastly figure, it drew closer to the person, still trapped and unmoving beneath the heavy stone.

Nero followed, hiding behind a particularly large block of bricks a meter or so from the Figure and the crushed corpse, being this close was starting to make his bones itch, His Instinct was burning wildly inside, but his fascination was stronger than his fear, especially, when the so-called Crushed corpse, opened its eyes.

This figure was mostly covered in rock, sand and dirt to get the full picture, but He saw one long horn that protruded from its head, it was smaller than the Figure who stared down at them silently, its face was battered and bruised, caked in dirt and dried blood, one of its eyes were so bruised that it couldn't open and so it stared up with a single, bloodshot eye that's iris shone an unnaturally bright Red. Nero looked at it for a moment, looked at it's a smaller upper body which looked to be... feminine, it was hard to tell through her damaged, dirt-covered face, but she was definitely a woman.

The Figure wasted no time in walking over to another rock pile and digging through it, Nero was perplexed as to what He was doing, if for only a moment that is, as He picked up a very large, very heavy looking boulder in his left hand, limping awkwardly back to the Horned woman's front and freezing back in place.

Something clicked in Nero's mind, His Instinct suddenly surged furiously inside "He's going to kill her, He's going to bash Her brains out!?" Nero panicked, watching the massive looming figure raise the stone up high above itself, Nero's heart was throbbing, his head was burning, instinct surging, He had to do something, He had to stop him right now!

Flinging himself out from behind the Pile, Nero charged at the Figure, who's head snapped unnaturally in his direction.

Nero wasn't sure which primal instinct to obey at that moment, one half of him was screaming at him to run, run the hell away from this giant motherfucker that was going to kill him, but the other half was crying to save the Horned woman!

The next few seconds felt like minutes to him, He didn't how He did it, He didn't why He did it, all He new is that by the end, the wrong one was left standing. Nero's Instinct surged beyond the veil of his control, further that it ever had before, exploding out of him and flaming widely, it was like he was being branded, a great searing pain flashed across his chest and on his left arm, the same arm that raised instinctually towards the black figure who spun around to try and meet him.

But it was too late, Nero's arm buzzed and crackled, thunderous bolts of streaking Crimson electricity suddenly bursting out from his forearm burning away his sleeve and creeping up his hand and straight into the chest of the tall, dark monster, Nero suddenly realising that He was nearly as tall as it was.

As soon as the massive flash of lightning flew into the Monster's chest, its huge body writhing and it collapsed to the ground, letting out horrible cracking and grinding sound as it screamed in its terrible growling voice, Nero stepped back, grunting and growling himself as he clutched his arm, the searing pain slowly subsiding but aching terribly in its absence.

Nero looked at his bicep with terror, expecting there to be some kind of grievous wound, but he found only one thing there, an intricate symbol was etched into his skin like a Black tattoo, Three lightning bolts, two-lined perfectly with the other facing opposite its peers inside of a perfect circle.

The Monster in black lay very clearly dead on the floor, its Body still smoking from the colossal shock, Nero heard chuckling, at least He thought it was, She obviously was having a lot of trouble doing the low cackle under all of that stone.

Nero stared at Her, Her seemingly open Red eye staring up at him "How... Why did I do that, that was really fucking dumb, that wasn't my business, what if I hadn't... but how did I even do that!?"

Nero's mind was a storm of questions, it made his headache even worse. "Nunquam.... vidi ante Te?" Nero heard the buried woman whisper weakly, Her only open eye barely only half-open.

Nero cringed at the sight of her, approaching her and frowning sadly "Are..." He said loudly, not sure if she spoke English or not "Are. You. Okay?" He asked very clearly, She gazed up at him blankly, Nero sighed, moving forward and kneeling a little closer to her, He could see that one of Her Horns was severed halfway, but both were engraved with symbols that looked like runes of some kind, She tilted her head, staring almost with fascination into his eyes as He shook his head and reach down to try and get some of the rubble off of Her.

The Horned woman didn't say anything else, she seemed to have also picked up the fact that they couldn't understand each other, she also seemed a lot more concerned with Nero than the fact that she was buried in rock, something that He was trying to assist with, struggling to pull away some of the bigger rocks with great difficulty, but eventually, Nero froze, Her clothing was mostly in tatters, torn and burnt, her upper body was exposed, He caught a glimpse of her strong abdomen and Her bust before he turned his head away.

She had some impressively big breasts, juicy red DD breasts tipped with Dark nipples "Oh Sorry... I." He said, making a point to only look at her face, She looked at him inquisitively for a moment, before looking away again.

She was... a lot worse for wear than He anticipated, Her arms were crushed, legs ruined, all of her ribs had to be broken, a large and deep gash that oozed crimson on her side "How is she even still alive?" He thought, that's was when he saw it, Her shattered arm lay in what looked like a cast of metal or something, it was completely ruined, exposing Her broken arm which hosted a plethora of black tattoos, jagged looking crosses that converged around four circles on her bicep, each one containing a symbol, all different from the one He had, One of them was alight, burning a bright red colour on her skin

"Corpus..." She whispered, watching him watching her, He raised an eyebrow, pointing at Her burning red tattoo

"Corpus, is that what this is?" He asked pointing to His own lightning bolt Tattoo, She stared at him again but eventually nodded weakly towards the Tattoo

"C-Creaturae..." She said, but Her head fell back as she winced, He watched Her tattoo flicker slightly, she was beginning to look worse suddenly, her eye blinked heavily

"Hey-Hey, Stay awake, keep those eyes open!" Nero said, touching her face and gently tapping her awake, She looked at him lazily, a glazed look in her eye, "look." He said showing her his hands and miming as clearly as He could "I'm. going... to move You, somewhere, comfortable." He said, miming sleep, She looked at him, letting out a few more shallow breaths before she eventually, Nodded, turning Her head towards the little dome and nodding to that as well, Nero smiled weakly at Her "Alright then... I guess I'll just pick You up and..." Nero hesitated, He felt a little awkward picking her up with Her tits out, but the Horned woman grunted, taking in a deep breath and pushing herself forward so that He was **** to catch Her, Nero flushed, He felt her soft flesh pressing against him, she grunted in pain whispering weakly into his ear

"Festinare..." She whispered to Nero, took her gently on her back and under her limp legs, making Her wince and Groan

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, it's alright, almost there!" Nero tried to reassure as He quickly carried Her over to the dome-like structure.

It was surprisingly homey in there, everything had been knocked to the ground, overturned stools made of stone, shards of something that Nero thought might be a few pots on the hard floor, but most importantly, there was a soft-looking pile of furry blankets, Nero spread them out for Her and set Her down, looking at Her dirt-covered face sadly as she winced again, He knew that He couldn't Help Her, Nero couldn't even help himself... but she looked at him with Her open eye, still tensed up

"I'm really sorry." Nero said, knowing He was talking more to himself than to her, but as he reached out, touching her hand lightly, her eyes narrowed, He pulled away when He saw this but found that the Horned Woman's eye had suddenly closed and she went limp "Shit!" He yelled, sitting up and tapping her face again, her eyes did not open "Come on!" He growled, slapping her a little harder this time, still, she didn't move, he checked by Her couldn't feel a pulse, did Her kind even have pulses?

"Fuck!" He said, moving witlessly before looking at her, taking in a very deep breath and pressing his lips to her mouth, He blew air into her, sitting up and doing chest compressions while counting off before leaning back down to continue the CPR.

Nothing was happening, she was still gone, He had been doing it for 5 minutes... she was gone, He gritted his teeth, his instinct burning inside of him like wildfire, overspilling as He gripped her wrist with fury, she didn't need to die... if he knew where he was...

"FUCKING HELL I KNOW WHERE I AM!" He thought angrily, still gripping Her wrist tightly and screwing up his face, forcing himself to acknowledge it "I'M ON MARS, I'M ON FUCKING MARS AND I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT TO DO!?" Wrath was building inside of him, his instinct boiling over again "NOW THIS RANDOM FUCKING ALIEN WOMAN IS DEAD AND THEIR'S NOTHING I CAN DO ABOUT IT, WHY, WHY IS THIS HAPPENING!?" His mind screamed, heart-thumping, Instinct finally oozing out of his body once again, the familiar searing pain branding against his skin once again, crimson light erupting from his body and slipping downward, into the Horned Woman's dead body.