Wazup y'all!

Welcome to chapter 9.

Now, this may be one of our shorter chapters, but chapter 10 should compensate for that.

Enjoy!

(Omni's perspective)

We gathered three of our Rex's: Drago, Siege, and Red death, Riptide, all our Tek creatures except for STAN, Yeti, Abominable, Berserker, Mika's Giga, Indominus who is now fully grown, Caustic, two of Mika's Dire Wolves, and Kong, King Louie and Bigfoot. Meanwhile, Mary entered the base with two mutated Theri's, one bright red, the other bright blue.

"Woah! I wasn't expecting mutes!" Mika exclaimed.

"They were exceptional in the Megapithecus battle. They saved my life. You should find them useful." She replied.

Crystal came up with some spare weapons and ammo for the trip.

"Any other tame you wanna bring Crystal? We got one more slot." I asked.

"Oh yeah, about that…" She said with a smirk.

"What did you do..?" Care asked hesitantly.

"I wanted it to be a surprise but…" Then she made a very complicated whistle.

Then after a moment, an eerie Griffin slammed into the ground behind Crystal.

"This is Daenermu, I tamed him a while back but Penny took possession of her after a while. Every day I took my Argy and searched for her since I joined you guys. I found her yesterday."

"Woah…" Care mused as he slowly moved his hand across Daenermu's feathered wing.

"This will definitely be useful in the fight, thank you," I replied.

"No, thank you for being kind to me and letting me join your tribe."

I nodded in return and helped prepare for departure.

…

We left through the side stone battlement gate facing the northern mountains and the blue Obelisk.

Crystal blasted through the sky on Daenermu while we followed below. I was mounted on Caustic, Care was on Snowflake, and Mika was on Nymeria and Ash was on one of her other wolves beside Mika. Mary decided to escort us to the Guardian battle atop the blue Theri with the red one beside her.

Once we passed the first mountain and crossed the partially frozen river, we encountered something we had never seen before.

"Is that an Alpha Carno?" Care asked.

"Ummm, dude… It's black and much bigger."

"Everyone prepare yourselves." Mary exclaimed, "That is an Alpha Rex."

"Those are a thing?" Care asked.

Then the Rex saw us.

It roared, so we roared back.

"Keep the Giga's in the back. If all three of them go into rage mode everything will die." Mary stated.

I whistled for everything to be aggressive except for the Giga's, and made them go behind us.

Care charged atop Snowflake, activating his courage roar in the process.

The Rex rushed toward us in turn, dashing toward us in flame.

Grimlock and Drago led alongside Snowflake and slammed into the opposing Rex.

We noticed this Rex was slightly bigger than the other Rex's as all other Alpha creatures also are in comparison to their normal species, but not as big as our Giga's.

Mary came at it from its sides, so her Theri's wouldn't get hurt too badly.

The Rex became enraged and pushed us all back individually.

We had difficulty keeping him at bay, but with the aid of the Giga's behind the Rex, we gained the upper hand.

For a finishing move, I sprayed acid over the Rex's head, completely dissolving any flesh, revealing a grayish-colored skull.

Mary then took out a blade and severed the head at the spine and put it into her Obelisk storage.

"What are you gonna do with that?" I asked.

"I'm carrying it with me for a trophy mount for you."

"I'm fine with that." Care chuckled.

Once we finally made it to the peak of the mountain, we saw Crystal waiting on her Griffen.

"What took you so long?" She asked.

"Got held up by an Alpha Rex, no big deal." Care mused.

"That's great, I got two of their heads mounted in my old base." She shot back.

"While that's all fine and dandy, I'd like to know where the hell the boss arena is." Care brushed off.

We looked around at the beacon of the blue Obelisk to see nothing resembling a cave or a pit that a giant 20-foot monkey could live in.

Mary then walked up to the base of the beacon and it seemed like she was opening her inventory.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"Summoning the Megapithecus."

"How are we supposed to fight it here? The peak of this mountain is like 30 feet in diameter." Care replied.

"Watch." She replied.

Once she lowered her implant, a clang or gong sound sounded from the Obelisk. Then large rock pillars on the edge of the mountain began to rise and spread out, supported by other rock pillars, creating a larger platform on top of the mountain peak.

Then, from a large ice wall of the side of the mountain below burst forth the Megapithecus.

It jumped up the side of the mountain and leaped onto the peak in front of us to then let out a loud roar.

This beast was completely white, with red battle scars riddling its face and right arm.

"Good luck," Mary said as she jumped off the ledge onto her eerie Argy she called.

I then whistled every creature to attack as the creature ripped out a chunk of the ground and hurled it at us.

Crystal flew high circling us, attack the giant monkey from behind when given the opportunity,

The Giga's, Rex's, and Theri's charged below and immediately started to thrash about with the beast as Arsenal provided cover fire.

The Mega kept backhanding the carnivores as they attacked.

Once the Mega had enough, he pushed them all away and began to beat his chest, grunting and hooting wildly.

Suddenly, hundreds of Gigantopithecus and Yetis began to climb up the sides of the mountain and charge us.

I dismounted Caustic and ordered him to hold the perimeter with Care's monkeys and Mika's wolves.

They did so and were effective for a time, but they were slowly being overpowered by the enemy's numbers.

Crystal saw this and began to throw some monkeys over the edge as Arsenal provided some assistance with his rocket launchers and railgun.

Care was boxing with some Yeti's near his monkeys while Mika and Ash were spraying bullets into the horde.

I noticed a bunch of Yeti's and wild monkeys gather together and push through, booking it toward their master for aid.

I equipped my rocket launcher and fired in front of them so it damaged the Megapithecus and decimated the group as well.

The Megapithecus began to individually target the Rex's to try and shorten their numbers.

He pounded Red Death's head into the ground and then picked up a large rock and smashed his head with it as he was getting up.

"NOO!" Care shouted as he saw what happened.

He then rushed toward Snowflake and activated both roars.

This caused some of the incoming monkeys to back off and our tames to become strengthened at the same time.

Arsenal, now enraged, sprayed bullets across the entire perimeter of the stage, killing most, if not all, of the wild monkeys and Yeti's.

Then the Giga's stepped forward.

Mika's Giga and Indominus grabbed onto the Mega's biceps as Berserker began to rip off pieces of its chest, body, and face. The Theri's also began to slash at the giant monkey's legs and lower torso.

The Mega roared in pain and kicked them away with both feet, using the other two Giga's as support.

The monkeys then broke off and began to climb up the Mega's back as he was still pinned, trying to break free from the other two Giga's grip.

Yeti climbed to the back of its neck and began to hammer its head over and over.

The Mega roared, grabbed Yeti, and threw him at Arsenal, causing him to get shot by him.

I heard Care exclaim again for his tame. He then used his jet pack to get right in front of the Mega's face.

The Mega roared at Care.

He then held up a pike and stabbed it in the eye. It roared in pain. Then he rocket punched the pike into its brain.

The Megapithecus was killed instantly, falling limp while the Giga's still held its arms.

Care then whistled to the Giga's, allowing them to eat the carcass as he cut off the head.

Once that was done, he rushed over to Yeti who was still alive somehow.

He had a major bullet wound in his lower abdomen, near the kidney.

Care then took out some cloth on him and bandaged him up.

Abominable helped Yeti up and supported his weight as they all moved away from the retracting rocks that were once a battleground.

"The Megapithecus has been defeated," I announced through the radio.

"Good, now come back to base so we can mount your trophies," Mary replied.

"Trophies plural? What else did you kill?" Bria asked.

"An alpha Rex." Care replied smugly.

"Wow, a Guardian and one of the strongest alphas in one day, well done." She replied.

"All in a day's work," I replied as I closed the channel.

Once we got back to base and met with Mary, she created two wall trophy mounts for us.

We mounted them inside our base and placed the Alpha Rex skull and Megapithecus head beside each other on the largest wall in the house adjacent to the large table and front door.

"Two down, two more to go." Care mused.

…

(Mika's perspective)

Once everyone was gathered back into our house, we discussed our next move.

"The Dragon is especially powerful." Thug started, "It easily dwarfs the other two Guardians in size and strength. Its fire blast drains health by a percentage of 20%, although we can't accurately gauge that, I have noticed the same effect on any creature from a Rex to a Pteradon. When it comes to tames, you will need to bring several flying creatures, at least ten. The Dragon does land occasionally, but most of the battle is spent airborne, not to mention its army of flying creatures you have to deal with. I'd say bring three Rex's max."

"Instead of bringing Rex's, I suggest Therizino's. They attack faster, harder, and don't get hurt as much by the Dragon's attacks, minus the fire breath." Mary interjected.

"Fair enough, what else?" Omni asked.

"Should we still bring Snowflake for her courage and fear roars?" Care asked.

"Yes, that will be essential," Bria replied.

"So in your opinion, would it be smart to bring let's say… 6 Argy's, 3 Pteradon's, Crystal's Griffin, 9 Theri's, and Snowflake?"

"Replace one Theri for Arsenal for artillery support." Thug suggested.

"I'm good with that." Care chuckled.

"Alright, Mary I'm assuming you'll be joining us as well?" I replied jokingly.

"I'll bring my Theri's." She replied with a smirk.

…

Considering we literally had to cross the entire Island, we rode our ground creatures with our Argy's and Pteradon's following in the air behind us in case something big attacked the creatures on the ground.

Care rode Snowflake, Omni, Mary, and Ash each rode a mutated Theri, Crystal flew with the air tames on Daenermu, and I rode proudly atop our mighty Arsenal.

We trekked through the swamp without any major disruption, there were only a few Kapro's and Rex's and such we had to deal with. Even an alpha Raptor showed up which we decimated.

Once we were halfway through the Redwoods, I saw a wild Argy patrolling. With a rider.

It saw us and immediately did a 180 back to where it came from.

I couldn't tell if they were scared or going to report to their other tribemates. It doesn't matter, I don't think anyone on this ark other than Thug and Bria can beat an army of mutated Theri's.

Once we crossed the other end of the swamp on the far end of the Redwoods, we were intercepted by a group of raiders with several Rex's and Spino's behind them.

"Move," I said sternly atop Arsenal who deployed the railgun on his head.

"Hello again, survivors." One of them mocked.

I then recognized two of the three as Penny and Blue.

"How the hell did you know where we were going?" Care asked.

"Word travels fast, when someone has just defeated the Megapithecus you'd assume where their next destination is." The black one in the middle replied, "Our scouts assisted us in locating your exact position."

That rider was from them. Of course.

"What do you even care? It's not like we're interfering with whatever your plans are, Crow." Omni replied.

"The hell is Crow?" I asked Ash.

"A jerk who has captured me several times and… attempted to do other stuff."

I gasped at that and turned to Crow.

"You son of a-"

He cocked his sniper rifle and shot into the sky to interrupt me.

"I don't appreciate your language, my dear." He said as he aimed the gun at me slowly.

"What do you want?" Omni repeated in a serious tone.

"To stop you. You are my enemy, whatever you hope to achieve is what I must stop you from achieving. Until you kill me, you will not reach that Obelisk."

"Fair enough," Omni said as he aimed his sniper rifle and fired.

Something dashed through the trees and blocked the attack.

A Giganotosaurus slowly rose back up to stare us down and then let out a roar as four other Giga's appeared through the forestry.

"We can't take that on… Not with what we have with us now." Care whispered to us.

"He's right, what the hell are we supposed to do?" Ash exclaimed quietly.

"I may have an idea, but I'll need the rest of you to distract them," Omni suggested.

"Well?" Crow asked ahead of us, "What'll it be, fight like true survivors? Or run like cowards?"

"Care, when we charge, dismount discreetly and follow me. I will require your assistance." Omni whispered.

Once Care nodded in confirmation, Omni then let out a whistle to Crystal who heard it and dived in seconds later.

She scooped up Penny and shot to the skies. As the others were distracted, we charged.

Mary and Ash led the charge with Omni and Care in the back, who dismounted out of the opponent's view just after Care made Snowflake let out a courage roar. I immediately focused everything Arsenal had on the Giga upfront, this caused him to go into rage mode and increase his speed.

I then aimed the railgun correctly as he roared, and shot into his mouth as he roared toward his brain stem, killing him instantly.

The Giga collapsed and tumbled forward from the momentum, causing one of the Giga's behind it to trip and tumble as well.

As Care and Omni dashed away behind us, our creatures clashed with the opponent's.

The Theri's were much more effective than the Rex's considering their attack speed and agility, the Spino's were also fast, but not as strong.

However, the Giga's were not as easy, the most damage they were taking was from Arsenal's gunfire from behind the front lines.

Eventually, with the aid of Snowflake's courage roar, we began to gain the upper hand.

As this happened, I noticed Crow whistle behind him.

Then another wave of Rex's rushed in.

(Care's perspective)

"Where are we going exactly?"

"Immune cave. Here." He responded as he tossed me a gas mask mid-sprint.

I caught it as I replied, "may I ask why?"

"Just follow my lead. We need to get the artifact as soon as possible."

"Yes sir," I responded.

We rushed into the cave immediately, but Omni stopped me when we first saw a ground of bugs.

Without a word, he sprayed himself and me with bug spray.

"Do not touch them. Bug spray does not act as a repellent but rather makes you invisible to them. But if you bump into them they will notice you." He warned.

"Understood," I replied.

We then carefully stepped between the hundreds of spider legs throughout the cave, thankfully when we got to the egg chamber most of the bugs were on the walls so we could just sprint to the artifact chamber.

Once we got it and left, I asked, "where to now?"

"Follow me." He replied.

"Secretive are we?"

"Yes, stop asking."

"Alrighty then."

I followed Omni in a dead sprint toward the green Obelisk which was about a 15-minute sprint from where Mika, Ash, and Mary were.

Once we reached the boss arena I asked again, "Just for the sake of it imma ask what the hell we're doing here."

"Remember how when we were in the Strong cave and you accidentally tamed Abominable with the artifact?"

"Yeah?"

He waited for a moment before subtly gesturing to the Broodmother cave.

"You're kidding."

"It's just a theory but I think it'll work."

"I'll stay up here while you get torn to pieces thank you very much."

"Suit yourself." He shrugged as he jumped onto the slightly sloped ravine wall and slid onto the flat ground of the boss arena.

He cautiously approached the mouth of the cave and let out a war cry into the cave.

"So he's insane now." I thought aloud.

The high-pitched shriek from inside the cave echoes out to us.

Suddenly, from the darkness of the cave dashed the Broodmother Lystrix.

Omni held up the artifact and noticed that the giant spider seemed to be somewhat drawn to it.

He walked up to its disgusting face and held it up to her.

The artifact grew bright and suddenly the red light from within it shot into the forehead of the Broodmother.

Her eyes shimmered red and purred at Omni.

"SERIOUSLY?" I called out, "YOU HAVE A FRIGGIN SPIDER QUEEN FOR A TAME!"

He responded with a "YUP!" followed by a hysterical laugh.

…

(Ash's perspective)

"Care! Omni! Where are you? We're getting slaughtered out here! Mika called into the radio.

No response.

The new wave of Rex's was beginning to gain the upper hand.

Mika was doing exceptionally atop Arsenal nonetheless, she was able to knock a Giga away from me just before it made a finishing move.

Mary was also very skilled atop her Theri, dodging the Rex's slower attacks and countering easily.

But the enemy's numbers would trump us in the end if this battle goes any further.

Mika fired an entire round of missiles at one Giga's face, causing it to back away, slightly dazed.

As it got back to its senses it roared back at us just as something burst through the forestry and tackled the Giganotosaurus to the ground.

"What was that?" I asked aloud.

"YES!" Mary exclaimed as we both saw Omni and Care atop the Broodmother Lystrix, eating into the corpse of the Giga they just took down.

"Well done Omni!" I exclaimed

"I'M FINE THANKS FOR ASKING!" Care replied.

"WHAT?" I heard one of the riders exclaim as Omni took control of the Broodmother and started to destroy their heavy hitters.

They suddenly dashed to another Giga and pushed it onto its side, with Care screaming in the process holding onto one of the giant spider's horns for dear life.

"I WOULD BE MORE EFFECTIVE ON A THERI RATHER THAN ON A GIANT FREAKIN SPIDER!" I heard him exclaim to Omni.

Omni then gave him an opportunity to jump off and mount a Theri just before attacking the fourth Giga.

Arsenal then changed his target to the army of Rex's and Spino's we were fending off.

Once the Broodmother was done with the fifth Giga, and we lost our second mutated Theri, he called out to us.

"EVERYONE BACK AWAY!"

I was confused by this command, and from the facial expressions of others, I wasn't the only one.

Care, however, had no hesitation and booked it behind us.

We followed as we turned to see the Broodmother spraying a volley of green acid over the army chasing us.

It melted more than half of the army, including Blue atop one of the Rex's.

Only Crow was left with four Rex's and three Spino's.

He whistled the last of his tames to stop as his gaze dashed from the Broodmother to us.

"You win this time survivors, I know when I am defeated."

Then he dashed back into the forest to his right.

Omni excitedly jumped off the Broodmother and ran to us.

"DID YOU SEE THAT? DID YOU SEE ME? DID YOU SEE ME?" He exclaimed wildly. (1)

"Very impressive, Omni," Mary responded as if to a five-year-old.

"Dude! I just tamed the mother of all spiders!"

"Yeah, we know stop rubbing it in." Care laughed.

Then we saw the Broodmother behind him begin to grunt and squeal.

"Doesn't seem like it's gonna be tamed for very long…" I observed.

Then Omni looked backward.

"We can't outrun it from here and we can't fight it with what we have," Mika said.

The Broodmother then collapsed and slowly disappeared like a hologram.

"Well… that was pretty anticlimactic." Care mused.

"Be thankful that was the case, she would've destroyed all of us," Omni replied as he mounted Snowflake.

Then Crystal slammed into the ground on her Griffin.

"What I miss?"

"A lot actually." Care replied.

"What are our casualties?" Omni asked as he walked up on Snowflake.

"Two mutated Theri's," I reported.

"You got any extras, Mary?" Mika asked.

"One of my bases is coming up that I was planning on stopping at, I do believe I have a few mutated Theri's there." She responded.

"Lead the way." Care replied.

…

We left Mary's base with two new mutated Theri's.

"Why do you have so many of these things? Do you really have that much time on your hands?" Care asked.

"It's always handy in times like these to have some good tames nearby. But to answer your second question, yes."

As we walked on toward the red Obelisk, I noticed something to my right.

A Tek cloud suddenly appeared in front of us, materializing into a Tek humanoid with a black visor for a face.

"And what brings you to our presence?" Omni asked in a mock formal tone.

"What have you done?" He asked sternly.

"What makes you think we've done something?" Mika defended.

"You are the only survivors I can assume are capable enough to disrupt the normal life cycle of the Broodmother Lystrix."

"Ah right… that… should have known that would gather your attention." Omni deflated.

"How did you do it?" He asked in the same monotone voice.

"Umm… well, you see… I kinda sorta used the Immune artifact?" He replied hurriedly.

"Impressive..." He replied.

"That's it? No lecturing about the stability of the ecosystem or our alliance?" Mika asked.

"...Yet forbidden." he finished.

"Ah…" She also deflated.

"As you may assume, your course of action has disrupted peace between us. I am now disassembling our alliance."

"Wait… as survivors, isn't it our job to y'know, survive?" Omni interjected.

"Indeed. However, the means you utilized are unconventional."

"They may be, but when it comes to life or death for us, who are you to judge whether what we've done is forbidden?"

"I am the Enforcer." he reprimanded.

"And your duty is to assist us and protect the ecosystem."

"That is correct."

"So, when we are about to be annihilated by another tribe, who's to say we can not use all of what is available to us?"

"Fair enough… Thankfully I removed the Broodmother from your authority in time before any major damage was done. I guess you can be forgiven this time."

"All's fair in love and war." Mika quipped.

"Be sure to refrain from interfering in the ecosystem too much," he warned.

"Isn't that kinda human nature though?" Care asked.

"Yes, yes I suppose it is. Maybe that's why your race is so reluctant to do such things, and why your planet became a barren wasteland." The Enforcer lamented.

"I'm sorry what?" Mary asked as the Enforcer turned into a cloud and disappeared.

"SEE I TOLD YOU IT WAS ALIENS!" Crystal shouted

"Maybe you were right after all." Omni conceded.

"Now… are we gonna go to this boss fight and hopefully not encounter any more interruptions?" I pestered.

"Yeah, we should get moving before anything else has a chance to interfere." Mary agreed.

"I swear if something else interferes it's gonna have to be an entire sentient space station." Mika groaned.

"What did you end up doing with Penny, Crystal?" Omni asked.

"Oh, I flew up as high as I could, said a few choice words I won't repeat, and dropped him to his death."

"Fantastic, now can we go kill that gosh darn Dragon?" Care muttered.

(1) Finding Nemo reference. Squirt getting back into the EAC.