"Laser Arrow!" Odd shouted as he fired an arrowhead at a Block while jumping in the air. He landed a few feet away as the arrow hit the Block in its XANA eye, destroying it.
Behind him, a group of Krabs were taking on Ulrich. They fired their beams simultaneously, converging together into one powerful blast of energy. Ulrich waited until the last second before jumping out of the way. He jumped on top of one of the Krabs and stabbed its vulnerable spot. The Krab exploded and he landed on the ground.
The second Krab knocked him back with its leg, making him lose his swords, which skidded across the ground and came to a stop. The Krab pinned him down with its pointed limb. Ulrich tried to get his swords but they were too far for him to reach.
Before the Krab could finish him off, a fan sailed through the air and sliced into its back. With the Krab destroyed, Ulrich climbed to his feet. He looked over and gave a smile to his rescuer. Yumi grabbed her fan as it flew back towards her. She smirked in Ulrich's direction.
"I guess this time you were the damsel in distress." Yumi joked, giving him a wink.
Ulrich shook his head. "Don't remind me okay?" He sounded upset, but the truth was he was grateful for the help. It just felt a little awkward to have to be the rescued instead of the rescuer.
Aelita was busy running towards the tower. It was straight ahead of her. The others were distracting the monsters the best they could. She wasn't too worried if she ran into a monster, since she could defend herself now, unlike during the early missions where she could only hide from the monsters or create landscapes as a defense.
Up ahead, she could see a couple of Krankrelats show up. They saw her immediately and began firing. She jumped out of the way and tossed a blast of pink energy at them, destroying the first one instantly. The other two looked at each other, as if contemplating what happened, and began firing at her again.
A shot hit Aelita in the shoulder and she jumped back. She held the area as if she were trying to stop some invisible bleeding. She glared at the two Krankrelats. She sent out another shot and destroyed the second one. Now only one remained. She smiled as she realized this wouldn't take too long. Krankrelats were always the weakest of XANA's monsters. A part of her wondered why XANA even bothered sending them out.
"Energy Field." She said softly as she raised her hand and aimed it at the last Krankrelat. The pink energy glowed in her palm. She was about to fire it when something hit her in the back. She fell to the ground. She looked up and saw a pair of Hornets firing at her.
She charged up another attack and fired it at one of the Hornets. As she was preparing to fire at the second one, the Krankrelat shot her in the leg. She staggered forward and looked behind her. The Krankrelat was wobbling towards her, its red lense glowing as it prepared for a second attack.
"Aelita! You're down to forty life points!" Jeremie's worried voice sounded out in the sky. "And there's more Hornets on their way!"
Just as he said this, a group of three more Hornets came flying towards Aelita. Their stingers were poised, the tips glowing. Before they had a chance to fire, a blur of purple flashed in the air, a small projectile shot out, and one of them exploded. The remaining two Hornets of the group turned their attention to the source of the attack.
Odd landed on the ground on all fours, his tail swishing from side to side. He gave a grin over to Aelita and said, "I'll keep them distracted! You head to the tower, Aelita!"
She nodded and made a run towards the tower. The Hornets and one Krankrelat had turned their attention to Odd. She knew the feline warrior could handle them easily, and Ulrich and Yumi were nearby, in case Odd needed some help.
Aelita stopped briefly and looked up at the tower. She saw the swirling red glow, the indication that XANA is controlling this tower. She entered it, going through the tower's surface as if it didn't even exist. She walked across the platform. It lit up bit by bit until she reached its center.
A pale blue glow surrounded her and she was lifted into the air. On the higher platform, she walked up to its center as well. A console popped up. She pressed her hand against it and it displayed her name and prompted for her input. She entered the Lyoko code.
"Tower deactivated." She said calmly as the data around her shot down the cylinder tube, briefly cloaking the inside with darkness as the deed went into effect.
Outside the tower, Ulrich, Yumi, and Odd were taking care of the rest of the monsters that XANA had summoned. Yumi tossed her fan at a Hornet. It dodged and fired a shot at her, hitting her in the chest. It had no time for a second attack. The fan struck it and it exploded.
One Hornet moved in to attack behind her. Ulrich leaped towards it and brought his sword down on it, destroying it before it could launch its attack. The final Hornet dodged an attack from Yumi, this time managing to avoid the fan's return trip. It fired at Yumi and she was divirtualized. Ulrich readied his sword, but Odd took care of the Hornet for him.
Now all there was left was the Krankrelat. It stood next to a rock, staring at them. It seemed confused as to what it should do. It didn't stay in this state for long. It fired in their direction, missing them both by centimeters.
"Just one more bad boy to take out." Odd said. He aimed his fist in the direction of the Krankrelat. He took careful aim, and then shouted, "Laser Arrow!"
The arrowhead flew straight towards the monster. It hit it dead center in its XANA eye. The monster staggered for a few seconds as white light shined out of the mark. But instead of exploding, the broken part of its body sealed right up again and the Krankrelat continued to hike towards them.
"Whu..what..?" Odd was stunned.
"Looks like you missed." Ulrich said, laying one of his swords on his shoulder, the blade pointing backwards. "I guess this means you'll have to work on your aim." He said jokingly.
Odd glared at him. "Oh shut up! I hit it dead on!"
"The walking Krankrelat says otherwise." Ulrich said before rushing over to the final monster. He held his sword to the side, tensing up his arm for the attack. When he got close enough, he thrust it through the Eye Of XANA. This time, the monster went down. Ulrich turned to Odd. "See? That's how it's done."
Odd folded his arms tightly against his chest. "Show off." His tail twitched irritability. He couldn't understand it. How did his attack fail but Ulrich's didn't?
"We're ready to come back in, Jeremie!" Ulrich shouted.
"Okay, I'm bringing you in." Jeremie said.
sss
Jeremie stared at Odd in disbelief. He gestured with his hands to stop Odd from talking, trying to comprehend what he just said. "Okay okay okay..what happened?"
Ulrich grinned in Odd's direction. "He's just mad because he totally in the zone today."
Odd ignored him. "I fired at the Krankrelat and it hit the thing dead center. It was about to explode, but..." He raised his hands up to emphasize his point. "It just healed right up! Just like that! It was like nothing happened!"
Jeremie was stunned by this. He hadn't seen this sort of thing in XANA's monsters before. In the past, always, XANA's monsters explode when their Eye Of XANA was cut open. What Odd told him didn't seem possible. He took up Ulrich's theory. "Are you sure you hit it?"
"Yes!" Odd cried. "Why don't you believe me?"
"It just sounds too crazy." Yumi said.
"If XANA were capable of programming his monsters to do that," Aelita said, "then wouldn't you think he would have done so much earlier? Why start now?"
Odd couldn't believe it. "Nice to know you got my back, girls." He said sarcastically.
"Face it, Odd. You missed." Ulrich said.
"I did not! You were there! You saw it hit the center!" Odd said to him, his voice tinged with desperation.
Ulrich shook his head. "Your body was in the way. I couldn't see it. So for all I know.." Ulrich pushed a finger against Odd's shoulder. "You missed and now you're just being a sore loser about it." Odd pushed Ulrich's finger away.
Jeremie decided to stop the fight before it continued. He clapped his hands to get everyone's attention. "As much as I agree there is little reason to believe XANA's monsters can heal their weak spots," He looked at everyone one at a time before he continued, "I think we should give Odd the benefit of the doubt and assume that he's telling the truth. I will run some tests on the supercomputer and see what I can find out."
Odd smiled victoriously. "Nice to see someone around here believes me!"
"Whatever, Odd." Ulrich said, rolling his eyes.