The apex

by Alex4top

On a trip back from an overseas excursion, Max Rockwell, a student from a private school, gets caught in a storm caused by an unnatural phenomenom and shipwrecks. Now stranded on a mysterious island filled with all sorts of monsters, he and his classmates will have to struggle in order to survive and to discover the secrets behind this new world they now live in.

14. Clever girl

Around an hour or so before the unnatural incident that shipwrecked them into this island took place the students were still casually enjoying themselves, mostly by just messing around or hanging out together in groups. Lily in particular walked around the ship in search of a place to get a good view of the ocean in order to make a sketch of it as a way to entertain herself and keep a good memento of the trip while two other female purple students tagged along, though they weren't really close friends of the young woman she accepted their company nonetheless as she always enjoyed drawing alongside others more than when doing it alone.

While looking around the ship they persistently kept asking about tips and methods to improve their own drawing skills while Lily did her best to answer with what she learned from the teachers and professors. Although the tsunami of questions suddenly came to a halt as one of the girls took notice of something rather peculiar.

"Ah, isn't that Alex Bergeron?" Asked the first purple student with surprise.

"Oh wow, it is him!" Replied the second one with an equal reaction.

"Who?" Asked Lily with notable confusion.

"You don't know about him?" Said the second purple student "He's a super popular athlete from the green school's boxing club who excels at all types of sports. In fact, they say he's so good at pretty much any sport that most clubs even pay him just to get his help during important events"

"I also heard from a friend who goes to the green school that he's actually the boyfriend of the green flower too" Added the first purple student before both of them looked at Lily "So, what do you think about him Lily?"

The purple flower took a moment of thinking with her eyes closed and humming before opening them and speaking up what she thought.

"I think muscles are okay to draw if you like practicing certain shapes and want to add more detail to bare bodies but there's only so much you can do with them when drawing clothes later down the line..." She explained methodically, much to the surprise and disbelief of the two students with her who were expecting an answer more leaned towards her taste in men rather than drawing techniques.

"N-No, that's not what we meant..." Said the first student.

"That's the purple flower for you. There's only room for art in her mind..." Added the second one while sweat dropping

Lily kept looking at Alex as he spoke to another student who seemed generally more reserved and gloomy than the cheerful sportsman, this soon caught her attention.

"Who's that person he's talking to?" She asked while turning her head to look at one of the girls.

"I'm not sure...He seems like a pretty gloomy guy, though" Answered the first student while looking at him "Judging by the uniform he's probably from the blue school"

"Wait, I know him! He's Max Rockwell!" Said the second student as her expression suddenly twisted into one of rejection "They say he's a total mysoginist who lashes out at any woman that gets too close. I even heard a rumor about him assaulting and scarring a female senior's face back during his first year so badly that she dropped out and changed schools almost a week afterwards"

"Wait, seriously?" Asked the first purple student before looking at him with disgust "What's a creep like that doing on the ship with us? Or rather, why is someone like Alex even talking to him?"

"I heard they're apparently friends. He's probably just trying to be nice since no one in the blue school wants to even get close to him, though" Explained the second student as she watched the two of them talk before Alex eventually walked away with one hand on the back of his head "What a waste of time..."

"Alex Rockwell..." Said Lily to herself, seemingly curious about the young man.

"Don't even bother thinking about him, Lily. A creepy scumbag like that is not worth your time" Said the first student before the second one nodded in agreement.

"That's right! He's definitely nothing but a horrible person!"

Despite the constant warnings from both girls Lily couldn't help but keep looking at him as he leaned over the rail of the ship. Even from the current distance she could notice the way he looked out into the oceans. That dejected, forlorn look that felt all too familiar to her, a gaze that had been burned deep into her mind at an early age and that she would never be able to forget.

"(A horrible person...)" She thought while looking at him in silence, her arms holding tighter onto her old and worn sketchbook "(All I see is a very lonely person...)"

"You gotta be kidding me!" Snarled Milly while pointing one finger at Alex, her aggressive yelling breaking Lily's train of thought and snapping her back to reality without any warning "Why didn't any of you say anything about him bailing out with the artifact!?"

"We wanted to, we just couldn't find the right time to do it!" Argued the sportsman in an attempt to state his case.

"That's bullshit!" Yelled one of the students among the gathered crowd "You just tried to cover for him!"

"Tha-That's...!" He replied with certain hesitation.

"I bet you bunch are gonna make a run for it and leave the rest of us stuck here in this hell-hole of an island!" Yelled another student.

"No! You're wrong! We would never do that!" Quickly replied Alex once more.

"Then why did you let that guy run away with the key to getting out of this place!?" Questioned Milly once more.

Shortly after becoming aware of Max's actions the blue student wasted no time in running back to base to spread the news about it. The ensuing commotion this caused almost right away could be heard all the way to the group's camp, causing them and Angela to quickly rush back to the base where they received a less than warm welcome from the students.

Although most of the blue students were silently dwelling in concern or just trying to wrap their heads around what was going on a small group were being much more aggressive than the rest. Their outburst towards Alex and the others didn't seem likely to erupt in a violent stone-pelting or wide-spread panic like before but the metal tools and spears on their hands certainly gave room a different type of concern.

Fortunately Angela wasted no time in attempting to defuse the situation.

"Wait, you guys! This isn't their fault!" Said the blue flower while standing in between Alex's group and the group of blue students "I'm the one who told them to keep quiet about it!"

"What!? Why!?" Asked one blue student among the many who had remained silent up until now.

"I didn't want everyone to panic like they did during the raptor attacks!" She explained while her gaze traveled through the crowd "Don't you get it!? We need to focus on working together in order to stay alive and get back home! Panicking and in-fighting will only put us all at risk again!"

"And what part about that artifact being the only way for us to get back home don't you get!?" Argued milly "As far as we know there's no other way to get out of here and that bastard ran off with it!"

"Hey, hold the horses! We're not like, 100% sure the artifacts actually do what we think they do!" Interrupted Olivia this time "That was just a theory you know!? A conjecture!"

"And even then he would need all ten artifacts to use the obelisks!" Added Alex while taking a step forward "So even with that one artifact there's nothing he can do with it just yet!"

"Then...What should we do?" Asked Sally, who was closer to the front of the crowd. The tone used for her question seemingly hesitant but more intent towards trying to find a solution rather than attempting to create more conflict.

The question echoed within the minds of the other students who seemed just as eager to ask the same question as they were to hear the answer from Alex. Fortunately the sportsman didn't shy away from answering with full-on confidence.

"Right now we need to focus on finding the other artifacts" He explained to them "From what we found out, the artifacts are hidden deep within caves spread all over the island, but there's dozens of caves so we need to narrow down the places to search first. That's why me and Rick have been looking for information about them"

"Caves? What type of caves?" Asked one random student.

"On first glance they look like normal caves but are filled to the brim with monsters" Answered the sportsman "There should be an artifact hidden at the deepest end but because of all the monsters lingering inside the island's inhabitants don't go anywhere near the caves and claim they're cursed"

The blue students of the Weathertop then looked and whispered to each other about this sudden new information for a moment or two before suddenly one of the females rose her hand up to call attention towards herself.

"Erm...If it's caves, I think I might have seen something like that"

All eyes quickly focused on her with a mixture of surprise and shock as she stepped forward.

"It was back when we were still moving from place to place to escape from the monsters. I was helping out in gathering berries with the others when I suddenly found a cave hidden behind lots of vegetation" She explained to Alex and the others as she recalled the events in her mind "I thought it'd make for a good place to stay the night with everyone at first but just as I peeked inside I started hearing these really creepy screeching sounds echoing from within"

"After that you got scared and ran back to the group without telling anyone about it, right?" Asked Angela, who could already envision what happened aftwwards.

The female student simply answered by nodding her head to affirm it.

"Do you remember exactly where you found the cave?" Asked Alex while looking at her, to which the student shook her head slowly "What about a general area? Even if it's just a vague idea, it could still help a lot"

"What about it if you had a map?" Added Olivia this time, who then approached both Alex and the student before pulling out a roll of worn paper and unfolded it on the grass to reveal a map of the island.

Upon the reveal Angela, Alex and the female student alongside with Olivia sat around the map as the blue students approached as well to take a look out of curiosity.

"So this is what the island's geography looks like..." Stated Angela while analizing every inch of the map with her eyes "Where is the Weathertop in this map?"

Olivia then began to look carefully while using her finger as a guide.

"Let's see...The red obelisk is here" She said while tapping on a small blue circle of water next to an island located at the bottom right of the map before slowly guiding her finger to the right and tapping it on the paper once more, this time at the center of the islet located next to it "Judging by the distance and landmarks I saw on our way here, I'd say the Weathertop is right around...here"

"Eh? That little spot?" Asked one of the male students in the crowd.

The blue students, including Angela herself, were nothing short of shocked by this information. Everyone imagined the island to be quite large but nothing of this magnitude.

"Just how big is this island?" Asked the blue flower.

"Massive..." Replied Alex while recalling his trip to the blue obelisk and the sight of the island stretching out as far as he could see from the top of the mountain.

"How didn't anyone ever find this place?" Asked one female student "I mean, if it's that big then shouldn't it pop out in satelites or something?"

"It's just my guess but maybe the obelisks have some sort of device capable of cloacking the whole island from being detected by satelites" Explained Olivia without moving her eyes away from the map "Maybe even the forcefield itself doubles up as a plasma cloacking device. And since it can refract wavelengths from satelites it wouldn't be a stretch to say it could also reflect light to effectively make it look like there's nothing but more ocean from the outside"

"No way..." Said the same female student.

"Well, I'm pretty much just brainstorming ideas here so it's not 100% fact" Added the Mechatronics student.

"One thing's for certain. It all keeps linking back to those obelisks" Stated Angela while turning her head to look at the red obelisk before focusing on the map once more "Either way, dwelling about it won't solve anything. First we need to find that cave"

While Angela and Alex tried to pin-point the location of the cave's entrance with the help of the female student who was trying to remember any details about the general area where she found it Alice and Lily remained some distance away from both the conversation and the crowd gathering around it, the little girl wanted nothing to do with this argument where yet again all they did was insult and judge her older brother while Lily remained on her side, the earlier flashback still fresh on her mind.

"Lily...Lily?" Asked Alice, who received no response until she began to shake her arm constantly "Hey, Lily!?"

The Purple flower's mind kept lingering on her memories for a bit longer before finally getting cut short by the little girl's attempts to regain her attention, which caused Lily to suddenly snap back into reality for a second time as eyes met with Alice's. The little girl looked notably concerned, signaling she had been lost in remembrance for much longer than she realized.

"Are you okay?" She asked to the flower "You looked like you were thinking really hard about something"

"Ah, I'm sorry!" Replied Lily in a quick attempt to brush it off with a smile "I was just thinking about trying to draw one of the horned herbivores we see roaming close to the camp!"

"I see..."

Alice didn't seem all that convinced by her answer but chose not to question her any further than that, wheter Lily was saying the truth or just making an excuse there was most likely a reason for it. And either way she didn't really want to make too much conversation with the current mood going on either.

Both girls focused their attention back to the rest of the group who seemed to be doing some progress on getting a more exact location of the cave. Although the female blue student couldn't remember the exact location she still vaguely remembered the timeframe of her discovery which in turn allowed Angela to recall a few landmarks with the help of the other students.

"If it was around three to five days before reaching the Weathertop then we definitely crossed the two large rivers to the east of here" Stated angela while tapping on the rivers drawn in the map "We had to make our way around the last one because of all the monsters and piranhas swimming around in it and that took us two full days, but we were able to cross right through the first one without too much issue in about a day or so and walking from one river to the other took us about two more days if we count the times we had to stop for resting and gathering food"

"I remember going to gather some fish with a friend and seeing a sandy area like that one too" Added one of the male students while pointing at the sandy area south of the islets.

"So with all of that, we can guess the cave should be somewhere around the second islet with the sandy area" Stated Alex with his finger on the second islet before looking at the female student "Anything else you can remember?"

The blue student took a moment of thinking before one important detail suddenly jumped back into her mind.

"Wait, I remember now!" She said with a sudden realization "The place where I found the cave entrance had large walls on both sides, kind of like a passage!"

Both Alex and Angela looked once more at the map with the new information before the latter pointed at a spot between two elevated areas of the islet.

"Kind of like this one?" She asked, to which the student nodded fervently in agreement.

At long last they managed to pin-point the location of the cave or at the very least what they believed to be the location of the cave's entrance.

"You think there's really gonna be an artifact hidden there?" Asked the blue flower while turning her head to look at Alex.

"I can't tell for sure, but it's still worth checking out" He replied while standing up and dusting off his pants "With that said, caves are way too dangerous to go unprepared. I'll wait for Rick to come back and then we'll prepare for the trip"

"What about that other guy? The one with the cowboy hat" Asked one random student from the crowd "Why not ask him for help?"

"That's right! Didn't he help you out with that first cave?" Said another student "I'm sure he's gonna lend you a hand with this one too!"

Without any hint of shame or hesitation the students were already assured Jerico would do as asked without any doubt, almost as if he was indebted to them. This conceited attitude ticked off the sportsman. The cowboy-ish man was certainly a good guy and his lack of grudge towards the students for that pelting proved it, but there was a limit to being nice.

"You people..."

"That man already has his own share of problems and his own group to worry about" Interrupted Angela before getting up and looking at the blue students with a notably stern expression "Besides...Do you really think any of us has any right to ask him for help after what happened the other day?"

"Tha-That's..." Replied the same student, unable to say anything further than that.

Just in the same way all the other students were left speechless. None of them could come up with a solid argument against it as no one could deny after the fact that what they did was too extreme of a method, even if it was meant against Max. Of course some thought about stating that to the blue flower but remained quiet more out of shame for their own behavior than out of disbelief.

"There's no other choice. If we want the artifact we'll have to go get it by ourselves this time" Said Alex after getting up as well and looking at the people around him "So, who's coming with me?"

Everyone remained silent or quickly took a step back to avoid meeting his gaze or standing out for a moment or two before one male student finally asked what many were thinking.

"Just asking...But what's in the caves?" He asked hesitantly as Alex looked at him.

"There's mostly giant bats, spiders, centipedes and scorpions. But that was mostly the cave we went to so I'm not really sure if it'll be the same on that one" Replied the sportsman "Even so, we should be able to hold our ground with a solid group of at least four or five people armed with spears and bows"

"When you say "giant", exactly how big are we talking about?"

"I'd say about the size of a large dog, if not as big as an adult person. The centipedes are definitely way bigger than a human, though" He explained while recalling the size of the cave-dwelling creatures as best as he could, which unfortunately seemed to discourage more than a few "Even so, fighting them should be no different from fending off those raptors that attacked the Weathertop! I know we can do it!"

The blue students then began to whisper among each other, although this time it seemed to be more in favor of Alex as he could faintly hear a few of them say how he made a good point. After defeating them for the first time the raptors became much more careful, attacking only those who would venture out to gather berries and fish. Thanks to Angela's plan of forming small groups armed with spears, hatchets and makeshift shields to act as "protection" the predators would always be fended off with bites and claw marks being the most common injuries but no deaths on the student's side, eventually their attacks became less and less frequent up until the raptors became nothing but something of an afterthought to the students in their daily survival routine.

This train of thought was quickly spreading among the students and Angela didn't hesitate to try and boost this mood of confidence even further.

"He's right! We also have the metal spears and tools Olivia made for us along with Alex's experience from already fighting his way through one of the caves!" She confidently stated while looking at those around him "I'm sure we can get that artifact if we prepare well enough!"

"Alright! So who's with me?" Asked Alex once more.

Silence remained for a bit longer as, although they were indeed more motivated, jumping head-first into a dark cave full of monsters wasn't exactly something anyone would do that easily.

"I'll go!" Stated Milly while taking a step forward.

To everyone's surprise, the first one to take on the offer was Milly herself. Many students looked at eachother in confusion and surprise as they didn't expect her to help Alex, even the sportsman himself didn't expect her of all people to be the first to step up.

"Don't go thinking I'm trying to get all friendly with you here, I don't trust you" She said to him with a rather nasty glare "I'm just going so I can make sure you don't let that guy run off with the artifact if he happens to show up"

"We don't know if he's even gonna go to that cave at the same time we do, or if he's even gonna go at all" Replied Alex, not even trying to hide how the blue student's statements were starting to tick him off.

"If he does go I'm gonna make sure I'll be the one taking that artifact..."

The way Milly held her spear tightly in both hands when speaking of her intent to be the one to get the artifact at all cost was rather concerning to Alex yet her skill with that very weapon would definitely make her a valuable fighter in the cave. Unfortunately she seemed to be the only one willing to sign up so far from among the crowd.

"Oh! I'll go! I wanna go!" Said Olivia with sudden excitement while getting up on her feet with the map in one hand.

"A-Are you sure about that?" Asked Alex before trying to take a different approach "No, I mean. I appreciate the enthusiasm and all but we need people that know how to fight"

"Ah-hah! Bet I totally don't look the part but I know my way around a fight!" Stated the mechatronic's student with a puffed chest and both hands on her hips before doing a thumbs up gesture with her left hand "Not to mention I've been working on building a crossbow using a few blueprints I sto-I mean-borrowed from that old guy back at the Golden Hesperonis!"

"(She was about to say "stole", wasn't she?)" Thought both Angela and Alex while sweat dropping.

"That cave should make for a perfect field test for the prototype model I've been working on, not to mention..." She continued before taking her monkey wrench out of the holster on her belt and tossed up slightly into the air, allowing it to spin in mid-air a few times before grabbing it and showing it to Alex "My hard 8" inch baby's a champ at pounding baddies! So I'll be fine even if the prototype breaks!"

"We-Well, she does seem pretty confident at least..." Said the blue flower with a weak smile, attempting to see the bright side "But I gotta say, I didn't think you'd be so willing to put yourself in that sort of risk for the sake of others students"

"Well, to be honest I don't really care about the blue students or other students in general all that much" Replied Olivia while totally clueless about the crowd of blue students sweatdropping behind her before her eyes began to glitter with excitement "What I do care about though is getting a good look at that artifact and those "black technology" walls I heard so much about!"

"Hey, now..." Said Angela, feeling her fellow student was probably being a bit too honest at the moment.

"Ahhhh!~ Just thinking about getting to see all that super advanced technology first-hand and up-close without any restraints is already making me all giddy on the inside!~"

While Olivia placed both hands on her upper arms and shuffled around on the spot everyone around her simply looked at her while sweatdropping.

"Friggin' weirdo..." Mumbled Milly to herself with a clearly unamused expression.

"Riiiiiiight...So, anyone else?" Asked Alex in an attempt to bring back focus into the cave exploration while looking around him.

"I'll go too!" Said Lily, finally breaking her thoughtful silence as she stepped closer to Alex and the others.

"Lily?

The sporstman and the blue flower looked at her with a mixture of surprise and concern, yet this did not discourage her in the least. Though both of them remained initially quiet, the red-headed blue student didn't hesitate to voice out what she thought.

"He asked for someone who knows how to fight, not how to make glorified doodles" Said Milly with both arms crossed.

The purple flower lowered her head slightly before looking up again with a determined look.

"I know I'm not as good as everyone else when it comes to fighting but I've been working really hard to get better at it! I want to help out!"

Alex looked at her in the eye for a moment or two. Although he spent plenty of time going back and forth between the Weathertop and the Redwoods he caught glimpses of Lily practicing with a spear and a bow and arrow nearly everyday during their stay there, sometimes even receiving a lesson or two from Jerico whenever he dropped by to visit. He could not deny she was working hard to improve but it still didn't remove his concern about it.

Even so it still didn't change the fact she, alongside Milly who did it only out of distrust towards him and Olivia who was only interested in the technology itself, was one of the few people who willingly offered to brave the cave.

"I get it. In that case we'll be counting on you" Said the sportsman while looking at her with a smile, the Purple flower's expression becoming brighter as she nodded while beaming at him.

"I'll do my best!"

After that Alex waited for a bit longer to see if anyone else was willing to offer up before two other male students also chose to join in well. The first being a student with short black hair carring another spear called Terry and the second a student with clear-brown chin-lenght messy hair carring a bow and arrow called Rascal.

"Alright then, so the team for the cave expedition will be Alex, Milly, Lily, Terry and Rascal" Said Angela while keeping count of the team members.

"Also Rick should be coming back from the Golden Hesperonis tomorrow in the morning" Mentioned Alex "If Jerico drops by with him I'll try and ask for help, but I can't really make any promises"

"If that's the case, then I'll ask him with you" Replied the blue flower "We're the ones who need his help this time after all"

The sportsman nodded in agreement to her before turning his head to look at the skies, his mind wondering what were Rick and Jerico doing right now. Had they managed to find some useful information as well?

He kept lingering on these thought among the peace and quiet of the Weathertop while on complete contrast the sounds of yelling and gunshots filled the air of the bar both Jerico and Rick were in right now. Bullets flying all over the place, wood and crystal bottles shattering from the impact and bystanders screaming as they ran away in fear while the cowboy-ish man hid behind a pilar and the sailor took cover behind a wooden table.

"Keep your head down sailor-boy or these Woombats are fair dinkun gonna turn it into swiss cheese!" Yelled Jerico before shooting his crossbow at the assailants dressed in black-chitin armor.

"Seriously, how the hell did things turn out like this!?" Replied the sailor with one hand over his head.

---

*Scene*

---

Before the chaotic shooting within the city of the golden bird took place both Jerico and Rick were in search of any information they could find about cave locations, the cowboy-ish man tried asking around at the open markets where he usually sold some spare goods from hunting such as animal claws, teeth and horns for craftsmanship and sometimes bought supplies such as Wetstones or coal, Rick on the other hand didn't have as much knowledge or connections so he mostly relied on the chemistry professor, who even now attempted to keep a low profile after that incident from last month, to either share any information he might have overheard while managing the gun shop or point him at random bars around the city where he knew there would be lots of gossiping amongst traveling merchants, bodyguards and mercenaries alike.

Most of the time the sailor attempted to present himself as just another hired gun looking for work while asking the bartenders for any jobs related to guard duty for spelunking expeditions. Many bartenders usually gave him the cold shoulder and gave hardly useful answers but others were more willing to cooperate, sometimes at a small price, and told him about the random miner groups going around in search of metals or flint yet none of them seemed to hint at caves that could contain artifacts.

"Damn it! This is turning into a wild goose chase, isn't it!?" Complained the sailor with frustration as he walked down the street with Jerico.

"No need to blow your top off just yet, sailor boy" Said the cowboy-ish man, trying to keep a positive mindset "This is a pretty big as city. We're bound to find something if we keep at it"

"I get what you mean, but at this rate it'll take us months to find any info about another cave..." Replied Rick while looking forward.

The sailor was nowhere near close to giving up, but this constant grind of searching around and then coming up empty-handed was starting to get dispiriting. Searching around relying purely on luck was easily one of the most ineficient methods one could use, so much that he felt like it would take years before he and the others managed to track down all the artifacts, let alone collect all of them.

"So did you find anything on your side, Jerico?" He asked in an attempt to try and not think about his lack of luck at information gathering and partially hoping the cowboy-ish man was better favored by luck than him.

"Sorry mate, I'm dry like a poor man's wallet at the end of the month." Replied Jerico with one hand on his hat and his eyes closed with slight dissapointment in himself "I even went and asked a few hooligans I know from back in the day and they didn't know shit. Either no one knows about them creepy as caves or those that do know keep their mouths shut about it tighter than a butthole after a meal of fried rice"

Rick couldn't help but wonder why would people hide information about the artifact caves when they could be the key to escaping the island but before being able to do so the sailor walked past a person wearing a hooded cloak made of hide, at first it didn't really catch his attention as he got closer yet the moment they walked past each other he caught sight of the stranger's face under the hood. Only for a moment did his eyes see it but he didn't fail to notice the familiar face of Max.

"(Huh?)" He thought to himself while suddenly coming to a halt and looking over his shoulder "(Was that...?)"

At first he was hesitant wheter that was the resentful blue student or not but the one thing that made him certain of it was that upon lowering his gaze slightly he took notice of a Dodo following closely behind him just as it always did. Despite seemingly standing out like a sore thumb right now the constantly moving amounts of people in the street made him completely fail to notice its presence until now.

"Hm? What's wrong sailor boy?" Asked Jerico who was too distracted talking about the information search to notice Max and Wilson as they walked by.

"Hey, Jerico. You see that guy on the hide cloak being followed by a Dodo?" Asked back Rick while pointing at the young man "I think that's that Max guy"

"Fair dinkum?"

The cowboy-ish man turned his head to look at him. During his time in the Golden Hesperonis he saw many people dressed in hide cloaks and just as many people with Dodos on cages but seeing a person with a hide cloack being followed around by a Dodo out of the bird's own volition like that was certainly a first.

"Well would you look at that? It's dodo boy!" He said with a mixture of surprise and joy while smiling.

Jerico raised one hand to catch the young man's attention but before he could call out to him Rick stopped him by placing one hand on his shoulder and quickly pulling him into an alley where the two of them could get away from sight, just in time to avoid being spotted by Max as he turned his head to look behind his shoulder.

"Strewth!" Exclaimed Jerico in surprise "What's the matter mate!? Wasn't that Dodo boy?"

"It's exactly because it's him that I didn't want him to see us" Replied Rick while peeking over the alley.

"Hey, now. I get it you two ain't exactly mates but don't ya think that's still a bit mean?" Asked the cowboy-ish man.

"No, it's not because of that!" Argued the sailor without getting his sigh away from Max "Just think about it for a moment. That guy absolutely hates being around people and those black-raptor mercenaries still want his head on a platter so why would he be here?"

"Cause he's digging around for cave information too?" Asked Jerico once more.

"Exactly! And wheter he has information or not there's no way he'll willingly tell us about it!" Explained Rick with confidence in his theory "So I say we follow him and see where he goes"

"I mean, I get what you mean and all but what about muscle boy?" He asked, this time putting Alex into the spotlight "Don't you think he would get pretty pissed off if he knew we saw Dodo boy and didn't even try talking to him?"

Rick hesitated for a moment or two before answering, not because he felt guilt about it but rather because he could already imagine having to go through another argument with Alex. Of course, eyes that didn't see were also a heart that didn't feel and he knew that.

"That's if he knows we saw him" Replied the sailor before looking at Jerico and trying to make it sound less worse "Lo-Look! We'll follow him, see if we learn something useful and then if things go okay we'll try talking to him okay? And if not we'll just keep it a secret. Not like telling him would help in any way"

"If you say so..."

Jerico clearly wasn't fully on the same wavelength as Rick but seemingly agreed to his idea nonetheless and the two of them began to tail the young man and his Dodo as they walked down the streets before eventually going into a pub. The two men waited for a minute before going in as well and quickly searching for a secluded table to spy on Max as he approached a table where a man dressed in dark brown hide clothes was sitting down, seemingly looking left and right as if fearing he was being followed at every turn. Both Rick and Jerico had to make sure not to look in their general direcction just to avoid being spotted by him.

"Took you long enough..." Croaked the man with his head lowered and eyes still going from one side to the other as Max sat down and took his hood off "You got the coin?"

Max didn't say a word but instead untied a small bag from his belt and lifted it up to face level with his right hand, lifting it up and down to cause the many Hespis stored within to shuffle around and clank against each other. With widened eyes the man extended his arm slightly with an open palm to receive it yet was surprised upon seeing Max lower the bag out of his sight rather than handing it over.

"The information first. Then you'll get your coin" Said Max with his glare focused on him.

The hoarse-voiced man didn't seem all too pleased about it but didn't took to long to shuffle around his duffle bag and pull out a worn out, makeshift booklet with a map and some notes on it before putting it on the table and sliding it forward to allow Max a good look.

"Here, now pay up!" Demanded the man wearing hide clothing with an impatient tone.

Max looked at the booklet for a moment or two before putting the bag of hespis on the table next to it. Right away the man took the bag and opened it to look at the coins stored within, he then pulled one and turned it around before scratching and even bitting down on it prior to taking another look at the spot where he bit down and smiling with satisfaction.

"Where did you get this from?" Asked Max, who now received a surprisingly more cooperative response from the shady man who had his pay.

"From a mining merchant. He and his group went down into the cave with a bun'cha hired muscle to mine obsidian. Good stuff, oily pigs over at the monkey bussiness house pay top hespis for it but hard to find n'less you go underground tho..." He explained while putting the coin back in the small bag and wrapping it on his own belt "Group got jumped on by bugs. Lucky bastard was the only one that made it back alive, the others got ripped appart by the cave critters"

"I see..." Concluded the young man.

While Max looked at the notes in the booklet, Rick and Jerico whispered to each other.

"Hey, what's all that about Obsidian?" Asked the sailor.

"It's a glossy black metal used to make polymer. You can build lots'a high-tech stuff like industrial machinery or fridges and even advanced weapons like assault rifles and rocket launchers" Explained the cowboy-ish man "Heard a few rumors saying the fat fish over at the council upped the price for it through the clouds cause they wanna start gearing up big time for when the new legion comes to bring in the fight once they're done cleaning house with the northern tribes"

"Wait...So the new legion wants to start a war with this city?"

"The new legion wants to go to war with everyone that's not them, sailor boy. That's why everyone's shitting their pants about the rumors" Answered Jerico "Told'ya before, those dipsticks are a brutal tribe, and once the fight starts the entire redwoods is going to turn into a warzone"

Rick broke a cold sweat as he imagined it. Dozens of people ridding on top of all types of war beasts, hundreds of bullets and explosives flying all over the place as both sides relentlessly massacred each other for days or even months with no clear end in sight. If surviving was a struggle now, then this war would definitely make it far more difficult especially for those who got caught up in between such as the trader groups or even random survivors exploring the island.

"Kyah!"

A womanly screech suddenly caught the attention of both men along with the hoarse-voiced informant and even caused Max to look over his shoulder before a young woman dressed in what seemed to be a waitress's outfit suddenly fell towards the table where both of them where sitting at, causing the former to suddenly jump off in a panic while the latter remained relatively calm.

"Ya bitch! What kinda shithole is this!?" Yelled an angry man dressed in black chitin armor to the waitress who leaned over the table "I ordered beer and you bring us piss!?"

"We-We're sorry! Our preserving bin broke and we couldn't afford to fix it yet!" Cried out the waitress before being pulled by the hair "Uwah!"

"To hell with ya stupid bin! I want my cold beer!"

The man shook the waitress around violently by the head as she began to tear up from the pain of her hair being pulled, her eyes looked around before meeting with Max's. The look she gave to him was without mistake that of someone begging for help yet the young man hardly showed any interest before facing forward once more without giving a single care about her, much to her dismay.

Those around the pub didn't seem all too likely to try being heroic as the man was wearing the notorious black raptor company logo on his armor and was not only accompanied by a squad that was most likely armed, but he also had a clearly visible gun on his belt.

"Look at me when I'm talking ya dumb whore!" barked the man dressed in black chitin before punching her right in the stomach hard enough to blow the air right out of her lungs and make her fall down to her knees.

The waitress coughed as she gasped for air on the floor before turning her head once more towards Max, her voice cracked and her eyes swelling up with tears of pain and fear.

"Ple...Please...Help me...Help...!"

Despire her cries the young man didn't move an inch or even bothered looking at her. Seeing he would be able to go by uninterrupted by no man the mercenary walked closer to the waitress and once more reached out to grab her, though he was shocked by the Dodo that suddenly tried to peck at his hand while getting in between him and the woman, both of them looking at the bird in disbelief as it shrieked in an attempt to try and be menacing.

"What the-!? A Dodo!?"

The customers around the pub looked in surpise and confusion at the scene taking place. Where no men had the mettle to interfere a small Dodo stood up without a single shred of doubt.

"The fuck's a Dodo doing here? Did it break out of the kitchen or something?" Asked the mercenary before swinging his leg at it to scare it away, yet Wilson did not back off "Get outta here you lil' shit! Shoo, shoo!"

Though he showed little care in regards to the waitress Max reacted in a split second upon seeing the Dodo in harm's way. Without even giving the mercenary any time to react he dashed off his seat and delivered a powerful elbow strike right in the face, the impact being so sudden and powerful he was pushed back a couple of steps before staggering and falling on his rear.

"Guhagh!?"

"Cap'n!?" Cried out the rest of his squad in surprise and shock before approaching him "Cap'n! You okay!?"

"Get off you dumbasses! I'm fine!" Snarled the captain of the black raptor squad while shoving away the other mercenaries and getting back up on his feet, he claimed to be unharmed though the blood pouring out of his nose and the cut on his upper lip said otherwise "Why you-The hell you think you playin' at, huh!?"

"Don't touch the bird..."

"Huh?"

"I said" Repeated Max while shooting a vicious glare at the mercenary "Don't touch the bird..."

The squad of mercenaries and the waitress looked at him with confusion before one of the squad members suddenly recognized Max.

"Ah...Ah!?" He cried out in shock and panic while pointing at him "It's 'im! It's the Dodo guy that killed our last Cap'n!"

"Ah! You're right, it's him!" Added another squad member "Bastard killed our Cap'n while we were out partying!"

The black raptor mercenaries quickly stepped back and remained wary of him while their captain was not intimidated in the least, if anything he just found this piece of information more than convenient enough.

"So he's the chump that put Shiz six feet under?" He asked before putting both fists up to face level and smirking viciously, then dashing forward at him "I was already planning to kill 'im good anyway so it works for me!"

Without wasting even a second the mercenary lounged at him to land a straight jab right at Max's face but the latter moved sideways to dodge the attack along with the following jabs that followed. During one jab he opened his hand to try and grab him but only got to pull on the young man's hide cloack and tear it off of him, revealing the dark-green chitin armor he wore over a set of hide clothing painted in a camo pattern, this included the piece of cloth he wore over his head. Unlike most armors of this type he had no chitin plating on his upper arms or legs to help him be faster on his feet and he wore a hide belt with a few pouches on the back. Another interesting detail was the odd gadget he wore on his left bracer.

"A speedy one, ain't cha!?"

The captain kept tossing different combinations of jabs and hooks from left or right without giving any time for retaliation yet not one of them managed to touch the young man as he was too fast to hit. He was quick and relentless but in comparison to Alan this mercenary's fists were much easier to predict as he relied mostly on basic brute strength rather than finesse and technique like the one-armed man's style that combined self defense and martial arts techniques.

"(Remember kid, if you're fighting someone who knows how to toss a good hook or two then let them sweat a little first, get used to their speed. And once they're tired, go in for the kill!)" Recalled Max as Alan's voice echoed in his mind "(Tire them out...And then strike!)"

After a moment or two of the constant barrage the captrain's breathing was starting to get a bit heavier and his fists slowed down a little, this was the moment to strike back.

"(Now!)"

Without wasting time Max put up both fist at face level and moved forward, dodging one final jab before delivering a powerful left hook to the mercenary's face followed by another one from his right one and then his left hook once more, repeating this process a few times and staggering him before dodging one random attempt at retaliation and resmuing his relentless counterattack. The final fist pushed him back and to the floor once more.

"Cap'n!?"

"Fu-Fuck! Get him, boys!" He ordered to his squad members, which were more than ready to jump into the fight.

The mercenaries quickly lounged at him together but unlike the one in charge they were notably slower and clumsier when attacking, mostly relying on trying to tackle him down or using very basic frontal jabs. With that said, they still had the advantage of overwhelming him with numbers which helped even out the odds.

"Well would'ya look at that...Guess dodo boy's been no wombat since last we saw him, eh?" Said Jerico with surprise.

"(Where the hell did he learn to fight like that!?)" Thought the sailor in awe at the crystal clear difference between last time and the current fight.

Both men looked at him as he fended off the mercenaries by dodging or punching them away before seeing one pick up a chair and lounge at him with it.

"Dodo boy, behind you!" Yelled Jerico, yet this was too late as when Max turned his head to look at Jerico the mercenary smashed the piece of wooden furniture against his back.

The young man got pushed forward by the impact and fell against a table, making those sitting in it jump away in fright as the man who smashed the chair on his back dropped the now broken pieces of wood on the ground and put both hands on Max's back to pull him up, yet at the same time Max took hold of a wooden mug half-full of booze and smashed it against his head after quickly turning around to face him.

"Ple-Please stop! You're destroying my pub!" Cried out the bartender as he hid under the counter "Th-the city guards! Someone call the city guards!"

As the fight kept raging on things became worse. The customers kept running away in fear of getting caught up in between while the captain decided enough was enough and pulled out his revolver to shoot at Max, the moment he did this Jerico quickly took hold of his crossbow and shot a bolt at him and hit the gun just as he pulled the trigger. This impact caused the weapon to divert to the left, making the bullet miss its target and instead hit a direbear head mounted on the wall.

Upon noticing this the captain turned his attention to both Jerico and Rick before opening fire at them, causing the former to take cover behind a wooden pillar while the latter turned the table and hid behind it.

"Oh shit!" Snarked Rick as he took cover.

"You guys! Enough messing around!" Ordered the mercenary to his squad "Shoot them up good!"

The other black raptor mercenaries did as told and pulled out their own revolvers, yet upon doing so the city guards stormed into the place with rifles in hand.

"Golden Hesperonis guards! Put the guns down!"

In a stroke of panic one of the mercenaries turned his gun at the guards and opened fire, hitting one in the arm and making him fall to the floor. The guards instantly reacted by opening fire on them as well and causing the whole pub to turn into a three-way battlezone between the city guards, the black-raptor mercenaries and Max, Rick and Jerico who got caught up in between.

"You gotta be kidding me! Why does this keep happening!?" Cried out Rick in frustration.

"Stay down sailor boy! Bullets are flying around like flies on a cow's ass!" Yelled Jerico over the seemingly endless gunfire as the captain of the mercenary squad kept firing at him and he attempted to retaliate by shooting arrow bolts back.

In the midst of the chaos Max leaped behind cover alongside Wilson.

"(Shit! I need to get out of here!)" He thought to himself while peeking over the side at the shootout taking place "(Where's that booklet!?)"

The young man looked around desperately before eventually seeing the priced book containing the information he needed. Unfortunately the earlier fight plus the current chaos caused it to be tossed around the place as the table got flipped over, making it land relatively close to where Rick and Jerico were at the moment. Unfortunately for him the sailor who also noticed the booklet didn't hesitate to drag it behind cover as he was aware of the valuable information within its pages.

Looking quickly at the small map stored within he saw a big red dot drawn on one of the islets east of the Weathertop's position. Taking out his own map of the island he quickly drew a dot on the same location and then stored it back in his pocket before closing the booklet and taking it.

"Hey, sailor boy! We gotta bounce outta this place before more guards show up!" Called Jerico without diverting his gaze away from the people shooting at them "Punishment gets real nasty around these parts if there's injured or dead guards involved!"

"What do you suggest then!?" Asked Rick while turning to look at him "We're pretty much pinned down by bullets here!"

Jerico looked around the bar for a way to escape or to at least create an opening before seeing most of the gunfire was focused to the right-side of the pub while the left was relatively calm.

"Follow me, mate! We gotta make it quick!"

Rick nodded in agreement before the two of them went from cover to cover, steadily heading towards the "calmer" side of the pub though stray bullets did bounce over there every now and then. As silent as they attempted to be they were not alone as Max quickly trailed behind them alongside Wilson.

"Through the window! We'll escape using the alleys!"

Waiting for the right chance Jerico ran towards the window facing the alley and jumped right through it before being followed by Rick. He quickly jumped while feeling bullets flying all too close to comfort as he ran out of cover, the landing was not all too bad but by the time he got back up on his feet and saw Jerico the sailor was quickly pulled down into the ground again after being tackled by Max. The two then struggled on the floor as the young man attempted to take the booklet yet Rick refused to let go of it until he felt something sharp pressing against his neck.

Max pulled out his dagger and put it against his throat with one hand still held tightly against the booklet.

"Dodo boy!" Called out Jerico, now aiming his crossbow at him with a torn look on his face "Last thing I wanna tell muscle boy when I see him is that I shot you, so don't make me!"

Both looked him as Max remained still for a moment or two before Rick slowly let go of the priced object. The young man replied to this gesture by slowly moving the dagger away from Rick's neck and getting up on his feet. The sailor got back up as well while looking at him walk away and placing the booklet in one of his pouches.

A short silence took place before Jerico put down his crossbow with a sigh of relief, then looked at Max as he took a hold of Wilson and peeked over at the main street before making a run for it.

"There! One of them is trying to escape!"

Both men then quickly ran down the alley to escape the whole mess while Max on the other hand ran down the streets packed with people to escape from the guards. Many looking in confusion and some in fear as they heard the yelling and gunshots in the distance, though the guards chasing after him refrained from using firearms since they would risk shooting a random passerby.

Sliding between crowds of people or pack animals and jumping over boxes or streets stands, he kept going at full speed with Wilson under his arm as the two guards chased behind him. Eventually he ran into an alley but knew it wouldn't be enough to lose them.

"(Might as well give this thing a try...)" Thought the young man while looking at the gadget on his bracer and then at the edge of the ceiling "(This better work, old man!)"

Using his arm as a guide and the reticle on top of it he aimed at the edge of the celing to his left before pushing the button on the back of the barrel. This caused a small metal container with sparkpowder to ignite and make the grappling hook on the front be shot out all the way up to rooftop where it stuck against an opening in the wood.

Hoping with every second the rope wouldn't snap he began to climb up the wall before getting up on top of the random building and from there ran accross rooftops as the confused guards kept going down the alleyway. Rather than risking an escape through the usual street entrance he headed off towards the large roads used by brontosaurus cargo transport tames and hid among the boxes covered by hide mantles. The slow but steady ride eventually made it's way out through the behemoth gates and out into the wild where was now free to climb down the bronto's leg before running off to the place where he hid his tame and headed back to Alan's hideout with the information.

---

*Scene*

---

The following day Alex and the others waited for Rick to return yet the sailor nor the cowboy-ish man showed even an hour after the time they agreed to return. The sportsman didn't mind waiting longer than that but Milly and the other blue students were growing too impatient, forcing them to leave without the two men while Angela promised to tell them where to find the cave when they arrived.

It took a lot of persuading but Alice was eventually convinced to stay with the blue flower and Sally, though she did so reluctantly as she didn't like being around the blue students at all because of what an awful group of people they were, according to her own words at least. Angela couldn't deny the little girl's words were a little harsh yet she couldn't really blame her for it either as she had not been given any reason to think otherwise up until now.

After departing from the Weathertop crossing the rivers and jungles took its fair share of time as it had to be done on foot. The Parasaur was a magnificent mode of transportation but it certainly wouldn't be able to carry five people at once and no doubt more arguing would take place if some could ride while others had to walk so to save the trouble they left it behind, hoping it might at least serve as distraction for Alice on the meantime.

Hours passed by as they traveled and ocasionally stopped to rest before finally reaching the location marked down on the map. Just as the female student described it the area looked like a passageway with cliffs on each side filled with lush vegetation.

"Hey! I think I found it over here!" Said Rascal while waving his hand up in the air at the others.

Everyone quickly approached and with Alex's help he moved the vegetation hiding the entrance aside to reveal a hole that seemed to go deeper underground, the faint sounds of screeching could be heard coming from within which made the blue student trio take a step back yet the sportsman took that as confirmation this was indeed the right place and stepped in before the others followed behind.

Darkness began to take over with faint luminosity coming from a few mushrooms placed here and there but that hardly helped with visibility. Fortunately the group brough a few torches along.

"He-Hey...You sure this is a good idea?" Asked Terry with his hands holding tightly onto his spear.

"You guys were the ones that didn't want to wait, remember?" Replied Alex without diverting his attention from the path forward while illuminating it with a torch.

"Those sounds are creeping me out man!" Commented Rascal while looking around him in search of the echoing screeches.

"Shu-shut up, you two! Stop making such a ruckus!" Snarled Milly while turning to look at the two scared blue students.

"You say that but you're scared too, aren't you!?" Snarled back Terry.

"I'm getting nervous because you two dumb bastards won't shut the hell up!"

"You three! Keep quiet!" Whispered Alex while turning his head to look at the trio "If you keep making so much noise you'll attract every single monster in the cave!"

The blue students suddenly became silent as they heard the sportsman's warning yet this only seemed to make them even more anxious, and this only became worse as a new sound echoed against the walls of the cave. Unlike the screeching this one was lower and more prolonged yet also more contstant as it stopped and then resumed in a rythmic manner.

After walking down a slope and looking around they found the source of the sound, a Megalosaurus was curled up on the ground just a short distance away from them, resting right under the ledge next to the slope they used to descend. Panic quickly spread among the group before Alex turned at them and gestured to remain quiet.

"Everyone, calm down!" He whispered to the others "It's okay! It's sleeping! Look!"

Everyone remained fully on guard yet the lack of response from the Megalosaurus slowly helped them regain their composure. The great lizard didn't get up or even bother looking at them despite their presence or despite being iluminated by the torch's light, proving without a doubt that it was sound asleep.

"What the hell is that thing!?" Whispered Milly with her spear still pointed at it "I thought you said there where only giant bugs in these damn caves!"

"It's a Megalosaurus. I've seen one before, but there wasn't any in the cave I went to" Explained Alex while looking at the sleeping creature "I heard from Jerico that they're nocturnal, so this one probably came into the cave to sleep during the day"

"He looks like he's sound asleep..." Added Lily, who felt a very strong urge to draw it and possibly pet it if it weren't for the fact the creature definitely wouldn't take being touched while sleeping very kindly.

"Yeah, if by "cute" you mean friggin' creepy" Commented Milly.

"Look, just stay away from it and don't make any loud noises. Believe me, you don't want to wake this guy up" Interrupted the sportsman before facing forward again "Come on, I see a path over here"

The group kept looking at the sleeping Megalosaurus for a moment or two before following Alex while trying to be as quiet as possible. The snoring of the nocturnal lizard steadily became more faint the futher away they got, which was more than a welcome relief to the group.

"Hey, Lily...I bet you totally wanted to draw that big guy sleeping, didn't cha?" Asked Olivia with a smirk, causing the purple flower to smile with an embarassed blush.

"Ah! Tha-That's...!" She replied while scratching her left cheek with her index finger and looking away with a weak smile.

"(I wouldn't be surprised if she wanted to pet it too)" Thought the sportsman while sweat dropping before noticing the path ahead split in half.

There were currently two paths, one to the left and another to the right. Neither one seemed all too diferent from the other but the doubt wheter one would lead to a dead-end or to much more danger than the other lingered in his head.

"Why way do we go now? There's two paths" Asked Rascal while alternating between looking at one and the other.

"I'm not sure, both look pretty identical" Replied the sporstman before looking at the left path "Let's try going this way first. If we don't find anything we'll come back and take the other way"

"Hey, wait a minute! How do you know that's not where the screeching's coming from!?" Questioned Terry this time.

"Well, judging by the sound I'd say we're bound to run into those super sized bugs wheter we go left or right" Intercepted Olivia before lifting her crossbow slightly "Besides, I'm itching to test out my new baby here so bring on the buggers!"

"You really are a friggin' weirdo" Said Milly with an unamused expression.

"Thanks, I try my best!"

"That was not a compliment!"

"Cut it out already. If we get attacked by the bugs we need to focus on working together" Asserted Alex "Besides, if we run into them it means we're definitely getting closer to the artifact"

Milly clicked her tongue before following after Alex, though the group stopped at a more or less well illuminated area with a high ledge that seemed to lead down further into the cave yet it was also crawling with giant scorpions, spiders and centipedes alike at the bottom. Fortunately they didn't seem able to climb up the steep cliff, though this didn't stop the blue students from being filled with a mix of terror and disgust at their presence.

Turning away from the ledge they found another path leading further down and followed it, eventually reaching a more open area with a large lake running along the edge of the cave wall. Unlike earlier portions of the cave there were crystal with a bright glow and a few holes on the ceiling from which sunlight crept in, making this area so well lit there was no need to use torches.

Following the path ahead Alex and the others eventually came upon a more lush, green area. This was were the group finally came upon the cave-dwellers, they put up a good fight and gave the blue students quite a fright yet much to Alex's surprise and confusion they were much fewer in number than he expected. Though he didn't think for too long about this as, much to Olivia's delight there was a wall of pulsating technology which she approached so quickly one might think she was a puma leaping towards its prey.

"Oahhhhhh! Finally, finally I get to see the cave technology with my own eyes and touch it with my own two hands!" Marveled the blue student with a blissful tone while touching the unkown, pulsating wall "No good, I can't tell what this material is at all but I can definitely tell it's the same as the obelisks and artifacts...But what's with this pulsating energy coming out of it? It's similar to the artifact yet so much stronger. Maybe an EMP? But what would it be for then? Oh, I need to know! I need to figure out how to pry open this big hard boy!"

"Hey, Olivia! Stop being so loud or you'll more of them!" Interrupted the sportsman as he approached her while looked around anxiously yet noticed no bugs in the vicinity besides the few ones they killed "...Huh...How weird..."

"Yeah, I've been saying that for a while now" Commented Milly

"No, I mean the bugs!" Replied Alex while looking at her, then at their surroundings "There should be way more of them than just this coming at us already but I don't see any"

"Maybe they're just all packed up against that ledge we saw earlier?" Asked Rascal "Either way, ain't that a good thing? We get to do less fighting that way"

The blue student made a fair point, less battle meant less danger and a safer spelunking yet Alex couldn't get this odd feeling out of his gut. Why were all those bugs gathered over there at the ledge and not here instead? Was something keeping them away from this lake? And if so then what?

The questions kept lingering in his mind as they kept moving forward before eventually running into a few more bugs, except these ones were already dead. All of them showing deep punctures in their bodies as if someone or something stabbed them or shot them with arrows and then pulled them out. They were not the only ones in the cave.

"Keep your guard up..." Warned Alex as he and the group slowly approached the sounds of screeching just around the corner of a curved tunnel.

Upon peeking over the edge he saw a couple of giant spiders and scorpions lounging at a man dressed in chitin armor who shot at them with a crossbow and stabbed them with the arrow bolts or with what seemed like a knife.

The first idea in his mind was Jerico yet he soon came to realize who he was looking at after noticing the Dodo standing right next to him. Though his clothes were far different from before there was hardly anyone else out there who would willingly bring a Dodo along for an expedition into a cave besides Max.

"That's...Max?"

"Eh? Really?" Asked Lily while peeking over the edge as well, both of them getting a good look at his face as he turned around a few times during the battle "It is him!"

"(Thank goodness...He's still alive!)" He thought with an overwhelming sense of relief and joy.

The first thing that came to his mind after the wave of relief at seeing his friend still alive was to go out and help him yet that desire dropped by a little too late as before he could even move out of hiding the last of the cave bugs was vanquished with a wooden bolt right to the face.

Looking at the dead monsters around him Max lowered his weapon and took a few breaths to recover before suddenly noticing Alex peeking over the corner of the wall and taking aim again.

"Wait, wait! Don't shoot!" Cried out the sportsman while taking a step back and showing both hands to gesture he had no intent to fight "Max, it's me! Alex!"

There was no response from the young man though the fact he didn't shoot him in the hands nor in the head when he peeked out to look at him were definitely a good sign.

With this in mind Alex slowly walked out of cover with both hands in sight, though upon seeing the other members of the group he kept his crossbow up and ready. The sportsman tried to walk closer at first yet this was countered by Max taking a step back, which convinced him to just stay on the spot.

"Max, look. I get it you're angry with me, you totally have every right to but please just let us talk this out" begged Alex, just wanting nothing other than things to be sorted out the peaceful way for once "I don't want to fight you, no one here does!"

"You sure about that?" Asked Max, finally breaking the silence.

Alex wanted to give the reassuring answer right away yet he felt something was off about that question. And he soon came to realize what that feeling was upon hearing Lily's voice.

"Alex!" Cried out the purple flower, urging the sportsman to turn around and see Milly and Terry point their metal spears in Max's direcction while Rascal took aim with his bow and arrow.

Though Alex wished to solve this with words, the blue student trio seemed to have something else in mind.

"He-Hey, you three! What are you doing!?" He questioned while taking a step away from them.

"Exactly what I said I came here to do!" Answered the red-headed blue student with a menacing look in her eyes and her sights set on the young man, the grip on her spear firm and ready "Making sure we're the ones taking that artifact!"

"Wait, stop!" Begged Lily this time though her requests were answered not with words but with the bladed end of Terry's spear getting aimed both at her and at Olivia "Uwah!?"

"Whoa, hey! Don't go pointing the pointy end of your long thing at others!" Added Olivia with both hands up to face level "Didn't they ever tell you trying to undo the maker with their making brings bad luck!?"

"Shut up! All of you shut up already!" Barked Milly with clear anger in her tone "You can fool that miss perfect blue flower Angela, all the other students and even Sally, but I know the truth! I know you assholes were always plotting together to leave us all stuck here while you escaped home by yourselves!"

"We told you already that's not it!"

"Lies! I know you're lying! That guy wouldn't be here if you weren't!"

"That's definitely coincidence!" Replied Olivia to try and explain while she and Lily walked sideways until standing next to the sportsman "You know, random chance! Pure luck!"

"Shut up!" Cried out Milly once more while drawing the spear closer and making the three take a step back "I don't care if you're lying or not! Either way we're not gonna let you and that psycho take the artifact!"

Both Alex and Olivia were struggling to figure out what to say yet the blue student's words brought a long held question back into Lily's mind, one she kept asking herself everytime she heard Milly slander about Max or refer to him.

"Why...Why do you fear him so much?" She asked earnestly.

"What?"

"Lily?"

The whole group, and even Max, looked at her with confusion as she let go of Olivia's shoulder and stood straight while looking at the blue student straight in the eye. Milly was always the one spearheading the rejection of the blue students towards Max, she was the one who yelled the loudest and the hardest against him, and the one who seemed the most intent to push him as far away as humanly possible, no matter the method needed. Despite all of this seemingly hateful rejection, Lily could tell by the look in her eyes. This wasn't hatred, it was fear, overwhelming fear.

"I heard the rumors too, and I know he can act scary or detached sometimes, but I don't think he's as horrible as you make him out to be" She addressed before lowering her gaze slightly and thinning her eyes "After all, a horrible person wouldn't work so hard to protect someone who's weaker than them..."

Silence took over as everyone looked at the purple flower. Even if just a minimally small amount, Max's aim on his crossbow lowered. Even though she was a woman just like "that" person she acted far differently.

Maybe, just maybe...She wasn't the-

"Why, you say..." Muttered Milly with her teeth gritted before crying out loud "Because I was there when it happened! I was there the day he sliced up that senior's face into a bloody mess!"

All eyes widened with shock as they focused now on the blue student, who was shivering while holding her spear closer and lowering her head, her eyes wide as she recalled that day.

"Wait a minute...So then you were with that senior from the green-school?" Asked Alex with disbelief before looking at the two students at her sides "You knew what was happening back then!?"

"Everyone in the blue school knew!" Replied Terry, though with less of a bravado than Milly "Even Angela knew, but she always looked the other way when it happened!"

"We didn't hate him or anything like that, we just didn't want to get involved and have her lash out at us too" Added Rascal "No one imagined he'd go full psycho on her like that!"

The sportman's mind was drawing a blank right now, he was unable to process this new information.

"(All this time...They knew what was going on from the very beginning?)" He tought before thinking about Angela, who always spoke of helping Max and seeing him as one of the blue students "(Even her?)"

"I'll never forget what I saw that day...The blood all over his face and hands, the screams of the senior as she curled up on the floor and the look in his eyes as he held that knife to her face...Those eyes gave me nightmares for years!" She said before looking up with terror at Lily "Those were not the eyes of a human, those were the eyes of a monster! That guy's a monster with a human face!"

The blue student then pointed her spear right at Max who looked with widened eyes at her, the expression utterly distorted by terror shocking even him.

"I don't care what anyone says, I don't care if you have a stupid Dodo for a pet! That'll never change what you are!" She bellowed with a voice that was starting to crack up "I don't deserve to be in this place, Sally doesn't deserve to be in this place! No human deserves to be here but you do! You belong here with these monsters! Because you are a monster just like them!"

Everyone was rendered speechless by this sudden outburst from the blue student. There was always some lingering doubts as to why she was always so predominant in her efforts against Max, but this explosive reaction was far beyond anyone's expectations. Even the two blue students at her side looked at her, unsure how to feel or even think of her at this point.

Eventually, Lily's eyes looked at her with pity.

"You say he's the monster...But the only monster I see here is the one in front of me"

Milly stuttered a few times while looking at the purple flower before finally reaching the breaking point and lifting up her spear with a cry of despair. Lily's eyes widened as he saw the blade at the end of the spear lifted up in preparation to fall down towards her, Olivia quickly took hold of her shoulder to pull her back and Alex was about to yell at her to stop while reaching out to grab her spear with one hand. And yet, all of that came to a sudden dead halt as a loud banging sound echoed all over the cave followed by a thud.

The world froze for merely a few seconds before everyone noticed the blood splattered all over the right side of Milly's face. The blue student touched her cheek to brush off some of the red liquid and look at it before looking down at her feet to see Rascal laying down on the ground, he laid there unmoving with his eyes wide-opened as blood constantly poured out of a gaping hole on the side of his head and pooled around it until reaching her shoes.

"...Eh?"

Suddenly everyone was snapped back into reality as more gunshots were heard and bullets flew inches away from the blue students, hitting the wall instead and forcing them to take cover in a panic.

"Oh shit! Oh my God! What's going on!?" Asked Terry with both hands over his head.

"Those are bullets! Stay behind cover!" Said Alex.

"Wait, stop! Stop! We're humans, not cave monsters!" Yelled out the blue student before attempting to come out into the open until the sportsman stopped him by grabbing the back of his shirt's collar-neck.

"Stop you dumbass! They already know we're humans!"

"Then why are they shooting us!?" Asked Milly while looking at her surroundings.

"Because they obviously want us dead!" Answered the sportsman before taking Olivia's weapon and peeking over the corner of the wall, seeing quite a few men dressed in chitin armor taking cover behind a few rocks.

The assailants had mostly long-neck rifles or revolvers and were about ten or so in number, making things much more difficult for the group as they only had one crossbow and a couple of bows and arrows.

"Max!?" Called out the sportsman while turning his head to see the young man running away deeper into the cave "Damn it! Everyone, run!"

Outmached both in weaponry and numbers the group decided to make a run for it before eventually running into the artifact chamber, though trouble only increased here as Milly instantly charged at Max and forced him away from the artifact by swinging her spear at him with reckless abandon. Alex tried to stop her but the incoming sound of gunshot did the job for him, forcing both to quickly take some distance from the artifact to avoid getting shot.

Turning around he saw the assailants coming closer to peek over the corner of the curved path. There was no time to think about the artifact anymore, they had to get out and they had to do it now.

"Over there!" Said Olivia as she pointed at a small opening on the wall.

Everyone quickly followed after the mechatronics student and crawled their way through the opening that lead to a sepparate chamber. Max initially stayed behind to take the artifact yet the barrage of bullets flying his way made him unable to approach the artifact and ultimately forced him to escape the same way as the others.

When reaching the other chamber and crawling through another opening the group came upon the bottom of the ledge where all the bugs gathered but fortunately managed not to alert them and instead went to the left, heading back into the main path where they would hopefully be able to circle past the armed assailants and escape while they were too distracted with the artifact. Unfortunately they ran into a couple of them who stayed behind.

"Stay put y'all!" Ordered the first one with his rifle at the ready.

"Oh shit!"

"Boss! We found'em buggers!" Called out the second man.

A moment or two later the rest of the assailants came back from the path they took, at the front of them there was a woman with skin as dark as Mocha latte with cropped black hair dressed in black-chittin armor, hers being notably more worn out and faded in a few spots than that of the others alongside sporting a much more prominent white insignia of a leaping raptor drawn on the left side of her chest armor. Max, Alex and Lily recognized the sign as the black raptor company logo. She was also carrying around a more modern-looking automatic pistol on her hand.

The woman looked at all of them, remaining focused on Max for longer than the others before turning her attention to one of her followers.

"Is this the guy?"

"Yeah! That's im' alright boss!" Replied the mercenary while pointing at the young man "He done killed our first cap'n an' then done beat our second cap'n!"

"Good to know" Said the woman before violently smacking the merc in the head with the bottom of her gun.

"Ouwch! Boss, why ya hittin' me!?"

"Be glad I didn't shoot you in the nuts!" Snarled the mercenary boss with her gun pointed at him "What the hell did I tell you dumb bastards about messing with the Golden Hesperonis guards when wearing the armor!? Now we're up to our necks in debt and guess what, it's coming out of all of your salaries!"

The mercenaries grunted in frustration at the news before their leader once again focused on Max.

"And you...What's the big idea, killing and beating up my men? Did you really think that rat you spoke with wouldn't sell you out when I put a gun in his head!?" She asked while taking a step closer to him "You know what happens when you do shit like that? You make them look like even bigger idiots than they already are. And that makes me look like a bad leader, a leader no one's gonna want to hire!"

Max didn't say a single thing in response or even showed any strong reaction while she put the gun dangerously close to his face, which seemed to irritate her.

"Not gonna beg? Fine by me, I was gonna kill you all anyway" She said before walking to the others with the gun pointed closely "What about you people?"

"Your guys attacked us! We were just defending ourselves!" Quickly said Alex in an attempt to defend himself and the others.

"You think I give a damn about what these guys did!?" Snarled the mercenary leader before putting the handgun right against his cheek "If anything, I pay them exactly because that's the kind of thing they do!"

"N-No..." Muttered Milly while shivering and tearing up, which caught the attention of the woman and caused her to walk closer. Though the moment she saw the gun barrel so close to her all attention diverted to the blue student, or more precisely to the liquid flowing down her legs "NOOOOO! ! !"

The red-headed student crouched on the floor with both hands over her head and yelled at the top her lungs, giving even the mercenary leader quite a jumpscare.

"No, no, no! ! I don't wanna die, I don't wanna die! !"

She kept screaming the same words over and over again while shaking her head in a panic.

"Shut up already, you wuss!" Barked the mercenary leader before hitting her with the sole of her boot on the top of the head, effectively making her tone it down.

"He-Hey, boss..." Called out one of her men while pointing sideways "That bird's getting away"

The leader of the black raptor company and everyone else save Milly turned their heads to look at Wilson as it walked off the same way the group came out off after passing through the side-chamber.

"(Wilson?)" Thought the young man as he saw it walk away "(Wait...Is he going to...?)"

"It's just a dumb dodo, forget about it" She said while brushing it off.

During this short moment of distraction Terry quickly took advantage of it by grabbing Olivia by the shoulders and pushing her at the dark-skinned woman, toppling both of them down to the ground. This caused a short lapse during which he ran and jumped into the lake to try and escape as some of the mercenaries attempted to give chase before suddenly stopping when seeing the water was home to a school of piranhas that quickly overwhelmed and tore him appart in a rather grizzly manner. Even some of the mercenaries had to look away as his ear-shattering screams echoed all over the cave until eventually all that remained of him was a pool of red and a half-eaten forearm floating close to the edge of the water.

"Dumb bastard..." Said the mercenary leader with a look of pity and disgust before facing the group again and aiming at them while pushing Olivia back in line "Alright, we already have the artifact to sell. Kill them all"

The black raptor company mercenaries aimed their weapons at the group yet their attention was once again taken away by a sharp shrieking sound. Wilson was running back towards them, though he was not alone as a large pack of giant bugs chased behind him.

"What the hell!?" Said one of the mercenaries as he aimed his gun at the incoming swarm, though before he could open fire a much larger reptilian emerged from the water and caught him in it's jaws, mauling and spinning him around in as grizzly of a manner as the piranhas.

"Shit! No wonder all the bugs kept away from this place!" Yelled the mercenary leader as she saw two more giant crocodiles emerge from the water, attracted by the smell of blood in the water "Sarcos coming in from behind!"

Things quickly devolved into utter chaos as the black raptor company got pincer attacked by the bugs and Sarcos, forcing them to fight for their lives as the group quickly took this chance to try and escape.

"Don't let them get away!"

Max, with Wilson under his arm, ran away ahead of the others as Olivia and Lily tried their best to keep Milly on the move as she was far too paralized by fear to even move by herself at the moment.

Upon reaching the area with the steel ledge a giant four-legged creature suddenly leaped down from the ceiling and lashed out at the group. Alex and the others managed to remain unharmed by the surprise attack but Max got bitten by it in the arm after trying to protect Wilson before chasing it off with a clean stab to the eye.

"Max, are you okay!?" Asked Alex. The young man was breathing a bit heavier than before but nonetheless got up.

"Hey, we need to fly outta this place quick!" Interjected Olivia as she saw some of the mercenaries were already chasing behind them.

Though bleeding quite a bit from his arm Max was able to keep up with the group until suddenly collapsing at the fork in the road.

"Max!?"

The young man's breathing got heavier than before and when coming closer Alex noticed the bitemarks on his arm suddenly swole up.

"Oh shit! Did he get infected from that thing's bite!?"

While looking at his injury a couple of mercenaries caught up to them, yet another surprise awaited for all of them as all the screaming and gunshots woke up the sleeping Megalosaurus from earlier. As expected the creature was quite upset judging by how it brutally attacked one of the mercenaries and flailed it around.

Many things happened at this moment, the carnivore's frenzied flailing and the other mercenary's gunshots caused the group to get split appart, Olivia and Lily getting sepparated as Alex stepped away to avoid getting smacked by the tail. At the same time Max slowly crawled towards the left fork in the road while staggering up to his feet.

Lily quickly followed Max after hearing the Dodo shrieking, though Alex and Olivia were forced to instead run for the exit as the Megalosaurus was already making quick work of the second mercenary and more could be heard approaching. Unfortunately for the purple flower the nocturnal carnivore chose to chase after her instead of Alex and Olivia.

When finally catching up to Max Lily noticed he was on the verge of fainting and barely able to even stand, yet the roar of the monster behind her urged the young woman to act fast.

Seeing Wilson chirp at her before pointing its peak at the water and jumping off she acted out of desperation and tackled the young man into the water where both fell. The Megalosaurus looked down for a moment or two before turning around and heading back to the fork in the road, feeling too groggy for it to be worth a swim.

Shortly after Lily resurfaced while holding onto Max with both arms, barely being able to pull him up due to the sheer weight of his gear. Fortunately there was a small patch of land close-by where she dragged him alongside the Dodo before falling down to the ground herself.

With the young man injured, his condition only worsening by the minute and the sounds of screaming, roaring and gunshots not too far off, Lily could only look up at the ceiling from which sunlight snuck in. She was in no way good enough of a fighter to fend off the bugs or the mercenaries if they swarmed them nor did she know how to treat Max's infected injury, she was pretty much defenseless and clueless right now.

"Wha-What do I do now...?" She muttered to herself while taking deep breaths "What should I do...?"

She closed her eyes and in her moment of fear called out to the first person that came to mind among the darkness.

"Big brother..."