Trials of Beta
Chapter Five: From Seeing the Rough Wave
Without a shovel or other such digging tool, it took quite a few hours for Alex and Beta to dig a grave for Lunehhy. A tombstone was made out of scattered rocks found laying about. Beta etched into the largest rock which sat upon the top of the pile these words: "Here lies Lunehhy Devi. Friend, lover, and the Greatest Ranger who ever lived or ever will live. May her soul rest in eternal peace."
Beta's eyes were red from crying. Just when he thought he could cry no more, still yet more tears would come to his eyes. The mood was somber, the air heavy with sorrow. Even the normally cheerful Kilala was silent. "We should... Move on, we hafta catch up to HK-55 and avenge Lunehhy." Alex said in a low tone. Beta could feel the anger within him rising at the mention of the name HK-55.
"Yes, we have to find her, and kill her for killing Lunehhy!" Beta said, gripping his Shadow Rod with both hands so tightly that his knuckles turned white. "Come on." He said through clenched teeth.
~*~*~*~*~*~
A wolf in sheep's clothing, that's what HK-55 is. And she's the worst kind of wolf, one that eats it's own pack. At the time, all I could think about was how much I would enjoy taking HK's life. I was so blinded by my rage, it didn't even register to me what Lunehhy had meant by 'Don't let her bring IT back' until much later...
~*~*~*~*~*~
The third level of this cave ended in a large tunnel. A river ran through it. A boating platform sat here on the water. This was the only way HK-55 could have gone. Alex stepped onto the platform.
"There's only one way to go, and that's forward. Let's go." He said, moving to work the controls. Beta got a bad feeling in his gut from this, but let the feeling slide, ignoring it.
"Think HK came this way?" He asked.
"Had to, this is the only exit down." Answered Alex, punching the throttle up to full. The floating platform began to sputter forward, and shoved off. Even at max speed, it wasn't all that fast. "This thing was probably used to transport carg-"
A load roar reverberated through the tunnel, coming from behind them. Beta spun around, shock covering his face as he saw what was coming towards them. A large worm like creature was skimming through the water at speed towards the small platform. Alex too saw this. "Crap, looks like we got company, put your game face on Beta!" He shouted, igniting his Photon Saber.
It didn't take long for the worm to come up alongside the left side of the platform. It was just out of reach of Alex's sword. Beta summoned up from within a Zonde spell, sending a tendril of lightening towards the worm, lancing it with the spell. It let out a shrill shriek, rising its head up out of water. The creature had two spear like protrusions jutting out from its chin, the head was strangely skull like, and appeared to be made of some sort of bone. From the first ten segments of its body below the head were long needle point tendrils. Alex recognized the tendrils, Rico had said she saw a worm thing stab an animal with a tentacle and the animal mutated. Alex quickly pointed the tendrils out to Beta. "Don't let those things stab you!"
With another roar, the worm slammed its head down on the platform, the spear protrusions imbedding itself in the platform, anchoring itself firmly. The platform tilted to this side, Beta and Alex sliding towards the worm. One of the tendrils reeled back, then shot forward towards Beta. The FOmar rolled to the side, the tendril imbedding itself in the platform where Beta was mere seconds ago. Kilala hissed, it's tail wagging angrily back and forth. Swinging his Shadow Rod, Beta slammed it against the tendril, breaking it with the sheer force of the blow.
Alex slid down the tilted platform, putting his feet on the head of the worm. Rising up his Photon Saber, he began to slash madly at the head, the energy blade slamming against its hard bone like head several times, a crack slowly beginning to appear. Another tendril recoiled, then shot forward lightening fast. Alex tossed his body forward, grabbing hold of the worm's head with both arms. Another tendril he didn't see quickly lanced him through the arm left, causing the HUmar to scream out in agony. Gritting his teeth against the pain, he swung his saber with his right hand and cut the tendril off, green blood spurting out from it and splattering on his face. "DIE!" With a cry of defiant rage, he rose up the saber and thrust it down into the worm's head with all his might, piercing the bone all the way through. The bone 'mask' shattered, falling apart to show the real face of this monster. No longer anchored to the platform, the worm dived back into the water, bringing Alex with it. The other end of the platform fell back down, and Beta cried out Alex's name.
The worm swam ahead under the surface of the murky water, Alex's saber embedded in lower part of its flat, fleshy face. Holding his breath, Alex tried pulling the saber out, but found it didn't respond. Shaking his head furiously, he doused the saber. He began to rise immediately to the surface as the worm swam like a rocket ahead. His head broke the surface, he spat out a mouthful of the dirty water, then waved his hand as the platform neared him. Beta slowed the boat, and helped Alex on. The roar of the creature slowly died out in the distance.
His arm was bleeding, quite badly. Grunting as he pulled the part of the tendril out, Alex chucked it over the edge into the water. "Fucking hell. That thing just attacked us out of nowhere!"
Beta was more concerned with Alex's arm. "Hey man, you okay?"
Alex shrugged it off. "Yeah, no sweat. It's just a flesh wound."
As the boat drove forward, Beta found himself wondering what the hell that worm was doing down here. His chain of thought was shattered by the roar of the creature again. Alex groaned. "Fucking hell man!" It was coming right back at them, the giant worm. Beta drew Lunehhy's Bravace, holding it in both hands, his Shadow Rod resting on his shoulder as he stood with his weight placed evenly between his feet. Closing one eye, he took aim at the creature as it rapidly swam towards them. Taking a deep breath, letting half of it out, Beta steadily squeezed the trigger. The Photon bullet drew electricity from the surrounding air, taking on lightening properties, then with a loud boom the yellow energy bullet hurled itself from the barrel of the silver pistol, screaming towards the beast, the upper half of its body just above the surface.
The energy projectile slams into the worm's face, the intense heat from the Photon energy liquidating a good portion of its face. With a blood curdling roar, the beast rose it's upper body out of the water, matching the speed of the boat as it swam backwards!
"How the hell is that possible?! That can't be happening!" Alex groaned. Purple pinpoints of light began to appear around the worm's mouth, and these dots were drawn into its gaping maw. "The hell is it doing?"
"I don't know... Shit! Dodge!" Beta screamed as a long lance of purple bio-plasma was spat out from the worm's mouth in a straight line. Throwing himself to one side, he had managed to dodge the attack, and was relieved to see Alex was safe likewise. The attack cut the boat in half like a hot knife through butter, the two halves drifted away from each other. As he laid on his side, Beta brought the Bravace to bear on the worm as it charged up to attack once more. "Gotta time it... Wait for it... NOW!" Just as the worm was about to release it's bio-plasma attack, Beta pulled the trigger on the Bravace, firing another Photon bullet at the worm's mouth. The bullet impacted the same time the worm released its energy attack.
The worm's head exploded, splattering green blood and gore on the tunnel walls and on its two opponents. The creature fell back into the water, sinking below the surface as the two halves of the boat sputtered past it. Friction finally caught up and inertia was no longer able to propel it forward. Letting out a breath of relief, Beta waved at Alex. "I think we killed it... So um... What do we do now?"
"What do we do now? Why the hell are you asking me?! You're the brains of this outfit! Nice shooting, by the way." Alex said, standing up and trying to balance the boat at the same time. Beta just laid on his side, not wanting to make the effort. Kilala shook its body, then nudged Beta's cheek lovingly.
"Think HK had to fight one of those things?" He asked the rhetorical question.
"Nah man, for some reason I don't think she did." Alex said, his voice echoing down the long tunnel. "Do you think we should paddle the rest of the way?"
Beta shrugged. "I guess. Try to get over here, it'll be easier if we're both on the same part."
"Okay, I'm gonna jump, get ready..." Counting off from three, Alex made the short jump from one half to the other, nearly tipping it over in the process, but somehow managed to balance it out so that it was no longer in danger. "Okay... Here we go... I wonder how far it is?" Alex spoke as he laid down on his belly and began to paddle with his arm.
"I have no clue, just keep paddling..." Beta said, using his Shadow Rod as a paddle to propel themselves along.