(A mild Love Puppy creepypasta.)

When it first appears, you take no heed to begin with; eight gun puppies appearing in the middle of a melee do tend to take up your attention. Your Polaris makes short work of them, its powerful explosions keeping them from letting off more shots than you can dodge. You work through them systematically, in a clockwise fashion.

There are a couple of Alpha Wolvers that trail you as you work , burrowing and popping back up behind you. You manage to clear some space – just enough that the Gun Puppies’ bullets are impotent, stopping several feet short of you – and pull out your Barbarous Thorn Blade, leaving crimson streaks and the snarl of the Snarbolax on the air as the creatures are cut down with yelps.

You pause, take a breather. Two of the Puppies are still firing, but there are another two still intact, standing silent.

One of them is pink. You stare at it. The HUD and comms unit integrated into your helmet cheerily identify the creature as a Love Puppy, a rarity in the Clockworks.

You’ve encountered rare monsters before, of course – you still recall being ambushed by that Rock Jelly in one of the more naturalistic biospheres, and you’ve run into Impostocubes in the Royal Jelly Palace before – but this is something you’ve never heard of, even from your friends.

Its head swivels towards you, meeting your gaze. The Love Puppy barks, sending a heart-shaped projectile in your general direction.

You blink at this. It manages to reach you, partially repairing your armour in the same way that regenerative pads often do.

Deciding to make use of the opportunity, you take a camera shot and relay the information on this odd creature back to HQ. Love Puppies are, according to their databases, fairly rare creatures that may sometimes appear instead of a more standard turret; they also possess the ability to heal knights, and are considered a blessing if encountered on an expedition. Oddly enough, there are also mentions of protective suit amplifiers dropped from such creatures, objects with the ability to increase the endurance of armour.

Nonetheless, you need to get moving again.

You draw your Combuster, moving swiftly over to the three remaining Gun Puppies before setting them alight with the sword’s explosive abilities. They were no match for you, dodging bullets and hacking down the turrets before they could fire another time.

And then there is the Love Puppy left.

It blinks at you, before barking again, letting out another of its healing heart-energy packets. The gates of the Arena are still up, though, indicating that you need to kill all enemies in order to proceed. You’ve heard tales of this before, of knights who entered dark, fiend-infested cities only to turn back at the last minute for the sake of saving a mewling Kat that wouldn’t hurt them.

You hesitate for a brief second, but you have no choice. The gates are shut.

“Sorry, little guy.”

It looks at you, just before you break the head off the turret and it becomes just another pile of scrap, like its brethren. The Mecha Knights unfold themselves, activating as a pair of Wolvers burrow into the Arena once more. Two Silkwings flit about anxiously, waiting for damage for them to heal.

Your Combuster charge makes short work of the Mecha Knights, sending them down in flames as the Silkwings struggle frantically to keep up with the damage you do to them. The Wolvers aren’t much of a challenge, either, trying to ambush you from behind and failing miserably. You keep moving, making it difficult for them to catch up with you, and then your rapier is out once more, impaling them to the ground.

The last Silkwing falls, its wings reverting into fabric as the demonic entity inside is destroyed. You collect the spoils of your victory – mainly scrap metal and gears left over from the Knights, although there are still some sharp teeth and that odd dust that collects from Wolvers at this depth.

Something gleams in the spot where the Love Puppy died. You pick it up, curious; it’s a locket, identified by your HUD as a True Love Locket. It opens at a touch.

Processing Thoughts of you Always, Love Puppy

You decide to use it.

---

(The thought of why such a creature would wish to give a gift to its killer doesn’t even enter your mind. Neither does the question of the inscription, but then, you never were one to look a gift Trojan in the mouth.)

---

The journey to the elevator is uneventful, without any treasure of particular significance.

You’ve got another two biospheres to pass through before you can reach the Core, but after the Arena your armour is completely repaired. The stratum of biospheres are all Beast-themed, a group of creatures you don’t have excessive trouble in dealing with. The True Love Locket you just picked up has helped out your survival ability, too, and you’re fairly confident you can make it all the way.

You glance up at the little icon on the elevator. It looks like the icon for an Aurora Isles biosphere – an uncommon one, but you’re reasonably familiar with it. You step onto the elevator, waiting for the familiar sound as the gears lock into place and the platform moves smoothly downward.

The darkness in between biospheres is familiar, too. You once found it disturbing how utterly pitch-black it was between spheres, but you grew used to it just as you grew used to Cradle’s other quirks.

Then the elevator slots into place with a chunk.

You blink.

Isn’t it going to get any brighter than this?

This is nothing like the Aurora Isles you know so well. This place is dark, although you can make out objects as your optics begin to adjust to the gloom. There are distant lights visible, probably from other biospheres, but no fake sun or spotlights. In all other respects, the environment seems much like the Aurora Isles, with bushes and shrubs littering the area around the elevator. There are brambles and stone monuments further off in the distance, as well.

A shiver runs down your spine. You don’t know this place, but you’ve heard stories – tales to terrify the newly minted knights, of darkness that twisted and corrupted and consumed knights, that bent their minds to their will and caused them to succumb to the madness. You thought that they were just that, horror stories, but now…

Your hand slips to your Barbarous Thorn Blade, the crimson glow an eerie light in the darkness.

A rustle in the bushes is your only warning before a Bull Chromalisk’s tongue flies towards you. You dodge, before retaliating with your rapier, defeating it easily. The enemy is somewhat reassuring; at least the enemies here are still in accordance with the Beast theme of the stratum, and you know what to face.

You manage to defeat many more such reptilian enemies, lunging for them just after they reveal themselves and managing to avoid being hit by their saliva. You’re starting to regret bringing the Thorn Blade, though – with the light it emits, any monsters will be drawn to it like a beacon.

As you proceed along the path, you see a pair of eyes light up at the end. Something whirs into life, a deep, angry growl emanating from it.

The HUD takes a little while to get a lock on it, before it proclaims the creature as a Tortodrone, a mechanical monster thought to be long extinct. You curse your luck; whilst the previous rare monster was something to be appreciated, this one is a very dangerous threat.

You switch out for your Combuster a split-second before it charges towards you, slamming into you and knocking you flying into a patch of brambles. You get up, ignoring the health loss alert from your HUD – there’s no time to worry about that now, and the construct appears to be winding up for another attack.

Its forelegs raise up, firing a volley of projectiles as you charge up your Combuster. They slam into you, stunning you and severely damaging your armour. The HUD emits a series of urgent beeps, a surefire indicator that you’re on what is commonly referred to by knights as ‘last stand mode’.

You move slowly, staggered. Your armour isn’t Plate, made for taking heavy hits; you’re a Striker, with Mercurial armour made from slimes, designed to move fast. Not that it makes any difference now.

The Tortodrone rushes towards you, an unstoppable juggernaut as it ploughs you into the ground. Its task done, it mills around aimlessly for a few seconds before deactivating on top of you.

Critical armour failure… critical armour failure…

There’s no energy left in your tank for an instantaneous armour repair job, and you’re alone here with a Tortodrone sitting on your broken corpse.

A growling noise approaches.

Gremlins… as if this situation couldn't get any worse.

The Darkfang Thwacker approaches, causing the Tortodrone to activate with a whine. The construct charges out of sight.

A quick three beeps, and then something explodes. Probably some kind of Irontech bomb, or perhaps a modified Heavy Deconstructor; you’re not certain without being able to see the blast.

The gremlin approaches you again, staring you in the eye before grunting and pulling out a wrench.

…an Emberlighter? All the way down here? Maybe I’ll get back after all –

He reaches down to adjust something in your armour, and everything goes black.

---

You regain consciousness quite quickly. The sound you hear is a familiar one; that of a series of Gun Puppies undergoing some hefty renovation work.

Your optics reactivate.

Ah… not Gun Puppies. Rocket Puppies.

There’s another knight here with you, a gunner making quick work of the puppies with a Storm Driver whilst a few Oilers squelch around aimlessly on the floor. Only two of the puppies are active; the ones closest to him, on the opposite side of the arena –

You frown.

Why haven’t they activated at my presence?

You make to draw your weapon, help out your companion –

…except you can’t move. Somehow, you’re fixed in place, incapable of reaching for your sword or shielding yourself as the Rocket Puppy swivels towards you.

It blinks at you, before turning away again, evidently determining you as ‘not a threat’.

There are now four Rocket Puppies, the unknown knight having taken out three of them.

“You’ve got to help me,” you call out, or try to. The noise you make turns out to be more of an ‘arf’, as a little red blob of healing energy makes its slow way towards the knight. He looks up at you as it reaches him.

“…a Love Puppy? Huh.”

No, I’m not a Love Puppy – oh Vog, the gremlin scavenged me for parts -

The knight returns to his work, blasting apart the Rocket Puppies before they start firing. The Oilers are likewise dispatched with an Umbra Driver, before he approaches you.

Please… help me…

The knight pats you on the casing, causing another blob of healing energy to come out.

“Sorry, little guy.”

The last thing you see is the Storm Driver aimed at your head.