Chapter 19
Behind the group, many bright lights flashed far behind them near the cave entrance for several moments and then stopped.
"What was that?" Han asked.
"It doesn't matter, right now, Han," Luke said. "Keep moving."
They all walked with their weapons at the ready in case of another Heartless attack. AS they walked on, all that they heard was the sound of their footsteps on the cave floor. Luke stopped, followed by the rest of the group.
"What's wrong?" Sora asked.
"It's quiet." Luke said. "Too quiet."
"I got a bad feeling about this." Han said.
Suddenly they began to here strange slithering sounds in the darkness, as if many snakes moving all together. Luke and Sora brought their weapons up, while Han aimed his blaster. Donald raised his staff while Goofy raised his shield, cowering behind it.
Something appeared out of the darkness in front of them, but all they could see of it was one giant eye on a green eye stalk. It looked slimy and wet. The eye blinked at them. And shot out a beam of dark energy. They all jumped out of the way.
"It looks like a dianoga," Luke said as he recovered and brought his blade up. "But it definitely isn't one."
"Really?" Han asked sarcastically. "What was your first clue?"
The dianoga like creature fired another beam, but Luke deflected it with his lightsaber.
"It's a Heartless." Sora said. "It must be."
As if in response to Sora's claim, the rest of the monster appeared from the darkness, a Heartless mark on its green and slimy body. The main part of its body was small but it was nothing compared to the huge dark purple tentacles thrashing around the cave. There had to have been six tentacles, at least, moving all around. And with only five victims to choose from, it had arms to spare.
One of the arms caught Sora in it's grasp and began squeezing him. Sora dropped the Keyblade and it hit the floor. Luke quickly saw Sora was in trouble slashed the tentacle with his lightsaber, severing it from the rest of the body.
"At least this should be easy to defeat," Han said as he fought his own tentacle. "Just get rid of the tentacles."
But then something strange happened. The stump where Luke had caught the tentacle off began to move and from it sprouted two new tentacles.
"Not good." Han said as a tentacle reached out a grabbed him. He began firing his blaster as much as he could at it, managing to hurt it enough to release him from its grasp. Sora then ran over to the tentacle and, having recovered his Keyblade, severed it from the main body, though only moments later two brand new tentacles sprouted from it. They backed up together to defend against the tentacle attack.
"Anyone have any ideas?" Han asked."
"For each one we cut off, two more take its place." Luke said.
"Wait a minute," Sora said. "Donald."
"Yes?" the talking duck said.
"I have a plan, but you have to do exactly what I tell you, understand?"
"Yes."
"Good, listen, Luke
and I are going to cut the tentacles off and immediately after we do,
I need you to make a Fire spell exactly where the tentacle had been.
Got it?
"Yes, Sora."
"Good," Sora said, then added. "Han, Goofy, cover us."
"Right." They said at the same time.
"Let's do it." Sora said, and he and Luke together ran to attack the two nearest tentacles.
Luke got to one first and with a swift thrust cut off a tentacle. Then Donald, firing Sora's orders, performed a Fire spell right at where the tentacle had been. The Sora cut off another tentacle and Donald fired again. One began to approach Luke from behind but Goofy rammed into it with his shield, with Luke subsequently cutting it off and Donald firing flame at it.
"Thanks, Goofy." Luke said and then went back to cutting another tentacle.
"No problem." Goofy said.
Soon all the tentacles were gone, their stumps burned away. All that was left was the eye stalk and eye attached. Sora just walked up to it, ready to dodge in case it fired another beam at him, and sliced the eye from the rest of the body with his Keyblade. But instead of disappearing, the stump where the eye had been began to move.
"Donald, quickly, use Fire!" Sora shouted at his companion and no sooner had Sora said so that Donald used Fire, stopping the regeneration process of the eye.
After they all had a chance to recover, Luke began questioning Sora.
"Sora, how did you know how to defeat that Heartless?" Luke asked Sora.
"Well, at first I
didn't know, but once I saw it regenerate its tentacles it reminded
me of a story a friend of mine told me."
"What friend?" Han
asked.
"His name is Hercules, and he was telling me about the time he fought a snake beast that regenerated the snakes he cut off. He realized that if he used fire immediately after he cut them off they would not grow back."
"Well, next time you see him, thank him for us." Han said.
"I will." Sora said. "Let's go find Leia."
"Very smart, Keyblade master." Ururl said. "Who would have thought that you would actually learn something in your travels?"
Ururl looked at Leia, who looked back at him, coldly.
"Oh, but you have so much more to learn." He smiled darkly at Leia. "So much indeed."
