Chapter Three

Lance felt excited, as he always did right before heading into a fight. It wasn't until the first blows that he would start to realize what he'd gotten himself into.

"We're here, Pidge. Where are you?" Keith asked as they got their first view of the creature.

Lance wasn't impressed. Yeah, it was big, but it just looked like a giant black blob, just hovering over the rocky formations that surrounded the village. But it had just swallowed somebody whole. It kind of reminded him of something that might be in an old B movie.

The green lion materialized in front of them. "Come on, let's get its attention."

"That's what I'm best at!" Lance crowed. He surged forward in his lion, leaving the two others to follow behind him. He thought he heard Keith sigh in exasperation, but decided to ignore it.

The blobby creature didn't move at first. Lance stopped for a moment, hovering over it. He noticed that the green and red lions were still behind him. "What do I do? Just . . . blast it?"

"I don't know! You're the one that went rushing in without a plan!" said Keith.

"Right, I forgot. That's usually your job," Lance shot back.

"You guys are idiots," Pidge said. She soared past Lance and sent a blast towards the creature.

"Hey!" said Lance. He sent his own blast and watched as the creature . . . did nothing. "Come on, that had to have hurt at least a little."

"Let's see how it likes this," said Keith. His lion roared and sent a blast of fire. It hit the creature right in the center, causing it to move upwards towards them. "Watch out!"

"No, duh." Lance tried to fly backwards, but some kind of tentacle came out from the creature and wrapped around one of Blue's legs. He tried to freeze it, but the tentacle dodged it, sending Blue flying through the air and slamming against the ground. Lance gritted his teeth. "Is that how you want to do this?"

The creature was now heading straight for Keith. Looking at it from this angle, Lance realized just how big it was. Forget building size, this thing was probably about the same size as the castle. Blue got to its feet and Lance sent a stream of ice at the creature. It hit, creating a grey ice patch. The creature stopped and flailed its tentacles, reaching for all three lions at once. Lance was able to dodge this time, freezing the tentacle that nearly got him. He smirked. "Take that, you creepy Grim Reaper octopus kraken thingy!"

Shiro's voice came over the comms. "We're almost there. What's going on?"

"We got this, Shiro!" said Lance. "The ice attack seems to be working." The creature had pulled back its tentacles and was now roiling around quietly below them. "Can't take the old Lance attack!"

"It's not dead," Keith said dryly. "I think it's just trying to figure out what to do."

"Well, it's just a matter of time before-"

The creature surged forward at an impossible speed, knocking the Blue Lion out of the sky. Lance yelped as Blue hit the ground for the second time in so many minutes. He couldn't see anything but the blue light coming from the control panel. Blue was completely covered by the dark mass of the creature.

"Ok, ok, don't panic, Blue. We'll just hit him with some ice and get out of here." He could feel his lion's distress in the back of his mind as Blue tried to thrash its way out and couldn't move at all. "Yeah, you're right. Ice might not help." He imagined trying to freeze their way out only to get stuck in the frozen flesh of the creature. "Guys, can you hear me?" All he could hear from his comms was static. "Come on, guys. I could really use some help!"

Lance winced as he heard creaking above him. He felt Blue's whimper as the creature put more pressure on them. The creature hadn't responded to regular energy blasts earlier, but that was their only option right now. Blue opened its mouth and blasted the creature at full power.

"Gah!" Lance cried out as the power was reflected right back at them, cracking the windshield. "Ok, bad idea." He gripped the controls, his mind racing as he tried to think of another solution. His breath started coming faster as Blue's panic mingled with his own. The crack on the windshield was spreading. Lance followed it with his eyes. He reached up and pushed the button to seal his visor, ready for the creature to break in and smother him along with his lion.

Then, suddenly the darkness was gone. He heard Hunk whoop as blasts of fire and energy sent the creature back. Lance let out a deep sigh of relief. "You guys are the best!"