They looked at it with both great fear and amazement. They were like stupid moths that couldn't help but be drawn to a flame.
Every time the thing inside's heart pulsated, they could see the cocoon slightly moving and their own hearts would skip a beat, in the most painful way possible.
"I've never had a heart attack but I imagine it would be like this." Nikolai joked clutching at his chest, in hopes of calming his racing heart down.
If they weren't in a pain of their own, they could've perhaps laughed but no one did. Not even Kiro. He was more scared than he'd ever been in-game, what was in front them was more dangerous than anything they'd ever faced.
If push came to shove though, Kiro admitted he'd have to use the powers that were on a couple of months cool down. Only if they'd let him though, he didn't think he had much of a choice in the matter.
He didn't know what other adverse consequences he would harbour if he'd forcefully use them, he wasn't sure whether it was worth it or that he wanted to find out. They weren't fighting for themselves here either, they were just hired mercenaries.
Kiro walked with calculated, deliberate footsteps. He wanted to end this before it even started, but he had a very strong urge to not attack. Even though they were all dreading what was inside, it still gave them a feeling that, they shouldn't attack.
The command was so strong that they were actually fighting against it. Their will wasn't quite strong enough.
Though Lyle surprised them all, he somehow managed to copy Kiro's whirlwind, it was weaker, far weaker but he was able to create a strong wind towards the cocoon. But alas, it did nothing to move it.
"Come on you guys! This is nothing, you can't tell me I admire a guy who can't even attack at the moment." He bellowed, bringing them back to their senses.
"It's a harbinger isn't it?" Nikolai said, having studied Kiro's face, he couldn't imagine anything else that could scare him to this extent.
"Yes, but worse. Worse than the Queen that almost killed me back then." Having a conversation like this took them everything just to string the words together. It wasn't easy.
"What the hell is a harbinger?" Lyle asked in place of Jorge, he was about the only one who had seemed to have a very good resistance against the thing.
Kiro had forgotten that there were two people who weren't guardians, well, three if you counted Ishaan. He wasn't sure whether the system would like that, but he didn't really care at this point.
They were about to face their worst enemy yet, Kiro was hundred percent sure that they'd lose this one. He was ready to lose the levels, he decided against using reality warping until the cool down was up.
"It's these powerful monsters that can only be fought by guardians of Asgard. I don't know exactly how the system chooses them, or if it's entirely up to the luck of the individual but there are a few already." Kiro explained without missing a beat.
Jorge pondered at this, he wanted to soak in the information, all of it, before asking questions. He didn't want to waste his words on inane things.
"I'll assume since you know about them, you're a guardian? Then if you know, why does this scare you so much?" He was exasperated by the end of the question.
"Kiro fought two by himself some time ago, one almost killed him, we fought one together that threatened the game world. But neither of us felt something this great, this one is much worse as he said, we may not survive." Hiro explained to him sincerely.
Kiro let a light laugh slip. He didn't mean to, but the optimism in Hiro's words amused him somehow. He wasn't hopeful, not at all.
Just after the conversation, the cocoon started making crackling sounds.