"W-Where am I?"
Koji looked around him. He was in some space where there was nothing but darkness. Underneath his feet, he was standing on what looked like animal's guts formed to make a bridge which was kinda freaking him out. Deciding not to stay here to find out what it was, the young beetle started following the strange bridge forward.
After a few seconds of walking, he found something rather...disturbing. It was a tissue-like machine that honestly ressembled female reproduction organs. There was an eyeball-like ball at the very center which, justly, formed what looked like a very scary face.
"What the hell...?!" Koji mumbled in pure confusion. "Are you...Critica?"
As if on cue, the strange face disformed itself to form somekind of smile. It suddenly started flashing in red and blue before it sent a wave of energy. Koji felt as it a sword had pierced his exosquelleton and was sent flying back on the flesh tubes, landing on his back and spitting blood.
"Shit...I didn't recovered from my fight with Kaiba..." He mumbled in pain.
"KOJI!"
He lifted his head to see Aksana, Faʻailoga, Eletise, and Totogi arriving in a hurry. As the butterfly helped Koji back up, the others looked at Critica with looks of pure shock.
"What the Komoni Christmas is that?!" Eletise asked.
"It's Critica..." Koji managed to say. "We need to stop him before he regains his true form..."
Aksana nodded and the four bugs summoned their masks and swords.
"Let's finish this..."
Meanwhile, on the ocean, a watercraft carrying Riki, Crane, Sinsamoa, Timu, Yang, and Tongo Tonga was floating toward the island where koji and his friends went to fight Kaiba.
"I'm not sure why you decided to come along, Riki. I mean, do you any fighting experience at all?" Crane asked the tribe's leader.
"It doesn't matter if I can fight or not." He responded, looking forward as he was the one controlling the watercraft. "I need to be there as a father because I can sense in my heart that my son is in danger."
"I can sense that too." Yang said, standing beside the big beetle. "I know it sounds crazy, but there's a part of me that's connected with him. This part tells me that I need to be there for him, regardless of if I'm stronger or not. I - no, WE have to."
Tongo looked down at his little brother. He never saw him so determined to go in danger, he who'd rather avoid it. He must really felt something was wrong for Koji.
Speaking of which, they arrived at the island in question where their friends left for. However, they couldn't help but look curiously as there was a strange dark dome covering most of the island's surface. Somehow, they could feel a very dark and evil presence coming from it. And where were their friends? Probably in this dome.
As if on cue, the dark dome suddenly faded away in the wind as if it was made of dust and they could a rather surprising scene. Aksana, Faʻailoga, Eletise, and Totogi were scathered around the ground of the small island, covered of bruises and blood which seemed to indicate they took a bad beating. And they immediately guessed who was the responsible.
In the very middle of the land was standing an indescribable creature. If there was to be one, they'd say it was a monstruous being standing on four tentacles whose entire body looked like it was made or organs. It had very long arms and a strange form. A huge shiver passed through the newcomers' bodies as the thing turned to look at them with black eyes that had red irises and a mouth filled with yellow teeth that formed a somewhat scary and cruel smile.
Not too far from him, on one side, Kaiba was laying on the ground unconscious and badly injured, aon the other, Koji was entangled in strange flesh tubes-like vines. Judging by the look of agony on his face, they were hurting him a lot.
"Koji!" Riki screamed in horror at the sight of his son getting tortured. "Please! Help my son!"
He didn't had to ask it twice as the warriors all charged froward to go help the young beetle. Critica justly released him as he turned his attention to the intruders and extended his arm really far to smash Sinsamoa so hard across the face that she was sent flying away.
The other warriors then charged to attack Critica together, only to be blocked by an invisible wall. The monster then flashed in red and blue and shot another wave of energy that sent a huge pain across the body of everyone including Riki. They all felt down and spat blood, not understanding what hit them.
"G-Guys..." Koji mumbled and exchanged one last look with Yang before passing out.
Seeing the guy who always had fate in him no matter what in this state caused a strange feeling inside Yang. something he knew the others always felt, but that he never personally felt.
The desire to fight
Pushing a piercing scream, Yang suddenly exploded with a jade green energy that nobody ever saw him use before. Once the energy faded, Yang now had a jade aura around him and had strange golden tattoos marked all over his back. His eyes turned golden as well and reflected his determination.
"Koji...You've always fought for me...Now, it's my turn to fight for you..."
Critica turned his attention toward Yang with a sadistic smile as he flashed in red and blue before sending another energy wave. However, the young snake simply swung his tail and created a barrage of jade energy that blocked the monster's attack, protecting all of his friends in the process.
"Impossible..." Though an half-conscious Kaiba. "This kid...I easily knocked him down barely a few hours ago...Where did he get the strength to stand up to master Critica?"
This last one kept sending energy waves which didn't broke Yang's barrage for more. He decided to make tentacles come out of his back and swung them at the young snake like whips. Yang charged his own tail with his newfound energy and whipped his whole body around fast enough for his tail to knock the tentacles away.
Eventually, he jumped in the air and opened his jaw to shoot a jade energy beam down at Critica. This last one turned his eyes red and shot a beam of the same color with them. The two attacks collided and caused an explosion in the air.
"As amazing as this kid is...he won't be able to win against master Critica..." Kaiba though as he turned to look at the still unconscious beetle who defeated him. "You need to wake up, Koji..."
Will Koji get up in time to help Yang defeat Critica? I sure hope so.
Also, you probably have guessed it by now, but for Critica's character, I got inspired by Earthbound's final boss, Giygas. The reason is that this dude is probably one of the scariest bosses I ever faced in my gaming life and I wanted koji to face a memorable opponent for his story. I sure hope I didn't failed :)
