The Marshlands (continued)

Meanwhile, on the Robo-Pirates' prison ship, in Admiral Razorbeard's private cabin...
Razorbeard was busy with some paperwork, keeping track of all the slaves that the crew had captured.
"Slaves now on board: 22,730..." he wrote on his parchment.
Just then, one of his henchmen knocked at the door of Razorbeard's cabin.
"Who dares disturb me?" yelled Razorbeard.
"Your Horribleness..." said the henchman, "...Rayman has made it to the Marshlands!"
"WHAT?!!!!!" yelled Razorbeard. He was very furious at the henchmen for not trying hard enough to stop Rayman. "You incompetent imbecile! AAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHH!!!!"
The henchman looked ashamed.
"I'll send out the warship and destroy him!" yelled Razorbeard. "He musn't get his grubby hands on the four masks!" (Yes, apparently, Razorbeard knew about Polokus and the masks, too!) He flew his ship over to the marshlands, where Rayman now was--but first, Razorbeard, who had one of the Yellow Lums in his hands, ate this Yellow Lum, so Rayman couldn't acquire it. So, now, there were only 999 Yellow Lums left in the world!

Back in the marshlands, Rayman was walking further through the area. The sky was getting cloudy. There was a long river of muddy, piranha- infested water up ahead. He hopped onto a small, round platform that was floating in the water of the dense, dark swamps. He could use it as a raft to float to the other side of the muddy river.
Suddenly, Rayman looked up, and saw the pirates' warship circling overhead, casting an enormous shadow which made the whole area look completely black! Rayman became very worried and frightened indeed.
Then, Ly appeared in Rayman's mind and reminded him, "Be brave! Only you can save us!"
As Rayman sailed across the river on the floating platform, the black- flagged warship overhead shot out one cannonball at Rayman. Quickly, Rayman shot back at this cannonball to destroy it, before it hit him. The platform that Rayman was on started sinking, by the time it got to a ledge across the swamp. Rayman hopped off it, and glided onto the ledge. The warship started sending out more cannonballs slowly.
On this ledge, there was a tunnel entrance that Rayman could go through. Rayman took cover insdie this tunnel to avoid the warship's deadly cannonballs!
Inside this tunnel, there was also a long rope ladder on the wall at the end. Rayman quickly climbed up it.
"Quick, Rayman! You're our only hope!" said Ly, in his mind.
This rope ladder led up to an opening in the cave, which Rayman jumped through. He came out in another outdoor area, and was now standing on a green ledge overlooking another swamp which was several feet down below him. The warship appeared in the sky, again.
"Don't be discouraged, Rayman. You can do it!" said Ly.
There was no way to get across this swamp yet, but there was a red button on a cliff wall across the swamp, which Rayman shot at. This button, when hit, caused a bridge to raise over the swampy area below, so Rayman glided down onto it and ran across it. The warship reacted by firing a cannonball at this criss-crossing bridge while Rayman was crossing it, and that caused the bridge to break! Slowly, the planks started collapsing underneath his feet.
"Go! We know you can do it, Rayman!" said Ly.
Rayman frantically hurried to the end of the bridge, just as the last plank was falling. He then set foot on the grassy ground, once again. On this side of the swamp, there was yet another tunnel. Rayman ran through it. Uh-oh. Another Robo-Pirate henchman was sleeping here. It awoke and pulled out its gun.
"Attack!" said Ly. "Even Razorbeard is afraid of you!"
Rayman fired energy from his fists at the Robo-Pirate. Bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, and the pirate was down.
"Yeah!" yelled Rayman. He could now get past it.
Out of this tunnel, there was another outdoor swamp, and here there was a metal cage on the ground. Rayman smashed it open to reveal a purple flying target that had been inside! The hook automatically flew over the swamp. Quickly, Rayman fired some energy at it, to magically create a rope that he could swing across.
"Hurry or the pirates will win!" said Ly.
When Rayman was swinging across this swamp, he jumped off the rope and landed on another platform that was floating in the swamp. Once again, he rode it across the muddy waters, like a raft. Although the warship wasn't here anymore, there were some more ghostly, black chickens rising from the murk! Of course, Rayman shot at them, too.
On the ground across the swamp, there was another wooden unstable bridge that Rayman hurried across. The dreaded warship was coming again, and fired another cannonball at this bridge, too.
"Go, Rayman!" yelled Ly.
The planks were quickly collapsing. Rayman almost fell off the bridge and down into the deep, gooey swamp below!
"Aaaaah!" he screamed in fright, sliding off the bridge. Quickly, he grabbed onto the edge of the bridge, before he fell. He hung from the edge of it, and managed to pull himself up, just as the warship was firing a giant missile that was heading rapidly towards him.
Rayman had got back up onto the bridge. Finally, Rayman had run all the way to the end of this collapsing bridge--just in the nick of time!
He came to some more grassy ground. The warship had disappeared, again. It must have given up trying to attack Rayman. However, there was a strong swarm of mosquitoes up ahead! Rayman hated mosquitoes; he had encountered them many times in the past, and he knew they sucked! The swarm of mosquitoes chased Rayman around the area, and Rayman yelled, "Next time, I'll be sure to bring mosquito repellent with me!" But luckily, he could just shoot some balls of energy from his fists, and that got rid of the pesky mosquitoes.
He walked further. There was the entrance to a cave up ahead. It was blocked by a wooden gate! Rayman sat down to think about how to get this gate open... Suddenly, another mosquito--and this one was a GIANT mosquito!--flew by.
"Oh, no, not another one!" said Rayman. He was about to swat it with his hands, and he almost did...but then, suddenly, the mosquito spoke up: "Hey, don't hurt me! I'm a friendly mosquito! My name is Bzzit. I can help you!"
"Really?" asked Rayman. He had never met Bzzit, before. He wasn't sure if this mosquito was lying to him or not. What if this mosquito was really another enemy, just pretending to be nice? But Rayman trusted Bzzit. Bzzit said: "The pirates have blocked off that cave entrance with a gate..."
"I know," said Rayman.
"Well, I have a skeleton key," said Bzzit, "and you can use it to open that gate!" He handed it over to Rayman.
"Thanks," said Rayman.
Then, as he proceeded into the now-open cave, he saw that there was some muddy water inside the cave. He couldn't get over this mud.
"Hop onto my back," suggested Bzzit, "and I'll give you a ride!"
"All right," said Rayman, "but you better not be tricking me!" He hopped onto Bzzit's back. Bzzit flew off through the cave, over the muddy waters. He flew all the way to the other side of the cave. Then, they came outside to a huge pit in the ground. Rayman was still riding on Bzzit's back. Bzzit flew over this pit, and dropped Rayman off at the other side of the pit.
"Thanks, again, Bzzit!" said Rayman.
"Yer welcome!" said Bzzit. "Oh, and look what I found!" He handed five Yellow Lums over to Rayman. Rayman now had 130 Yellow Lums in total, out of 999.
"Well, good-bye for now!" buzzed Bzzit. "I have to go and sting some Robo-Pirates..."
Rayman walked further. There was the entrance to a hollow tree up ahead. He saw a peg-legged Robo-Pirate standing inside this hollow tree. It was wearing a white shirt with light blue stripes, and it stood on all four legs like a gorilla.
"Arrrrrh!" yelled the pirate, running towards Rayman on all fours. Rayman tried shooting multiple balls of energy at it, but unfortuantely the pirate seemed invulnerable to it! Quickly, Rayman ran back to the gap in the ground that was before the hollow tree. Rayman stood very close to this gap. The Robo-Pirate followed Rayman there, charging very fast. Rayman jumped up as the pirate ran towards him. The pirate fell into the gap.
"Yeah!" yelled Rayman. He had lured the pirate into the giant gap in the ground.
He proceeded further into this hollow tree. Inside this tree, there was a long hallway. There were three swinging axes hanging from the ceiling by chains. They swung back and forth, back and forth, almost touching the floor below. There was also a blue laser forcefield at the end of this hallway. Luckily, there was also a red button right in front of Rayman, and when he hit it, it deactivated the blue lasers on the other side(when Rayman hit it). Quickly, Rayman ran over to the other end of this hallway, avoiding the swinging axes, and he made it to the other end! Just in time, too. The laser forcefield turned back on again, just as Rayman had passed through the end of the hallway. (Apparently, that red button had only deactivated the lasers for a few seconds.)
Beyond the blue lasers, Rayman turned left. (He was still in the hallway inside the hollow tree.) There was another hallway that he had to run through. He did. There was a brown flap in the wall, which opened and spit out a giant barrel which rolled across the floor, chasing him down the hallway! The barrel would squish him if it rolled over him, so Rayman ran madly to the end of this second hallway, before the huge rolling barrel caught up to him. He had to run really fast!
At the other end of this very long hallway, there was an opening leading out of the hollow tree, at last. Rayman ran out of the tree. He turned left. The giant barrel rolled out through the hole in the tree and fell down into a pit below the tree.
There was a purple mushroom trampoline on the ground, near the base of the tree's trunk. Rayman jumped onto it and bounced high up into the air, to reach a branch sticking out of the tree. He saw that there was a cage hanging from another branch above that one. Rayman broke it open with his fists. Out came a Teensie.
"Rayman," it spoke, "good news. I can show you the way to Polokus' first mask! Just follow me..."
"At last!" said Rayman. The Teensie then waved its hands around and activated a magic portal that was in a hole in the giant tree. The portal glowed. Rayman hopped through it.
Rayman had now retrieved a total of 155 out of 999 Yellow Lums.