Disclaimer: I hereby declare that Roosterteeth studios RWBY production crew may freely use any ideas, characters, or events written in this story free of charge and without any threat of lawsuit for any production, though it would be preferable to inform me of the use of the idea if used.

Ch 40

Lan felt fingers tap his head, rousing him from his sleep.

"Come on boy, we're nearly there." Said Tora.

Lan yawned and looked out the sub's window at the passing underwater scenery. Up ahead was a rock face with a hard-to-see hole in it that all the other submarines were heading into. The submarines followed a long a winding tunnel before heading up and surfacing in a large cavern. The submarines were then quickly docked, depressurized, and then opened.

"Alright!" yelled Christopher "Everyone out!"

As Lan clambered out of the submarine with everyone else, he took a good look at the cavern around. There were many crates lying around as well as many small caves that could serve as rooms. There was also a soft greenish luminescent glow filling the room due to a breed of phosphorescent algae that clung to the walls. Christopher quickly began ordering people around to set things up, and before long many warm fires crackled in the center of many groups of people, who huddled around them.

"Wait, won't we suffocate?" asked Lan, who eyed the smoke rising from the fires as he dropped a crate he had been moving and sat down near a fire.

"Nah" said Ishiku, who sat down beside him, "There are a lot of holes in the ceiling that lead to the surface. We'll be fine."

Ishiku then raised his shoulders above his body, stretched, let out a sigh, and then fell onto his back.

"Tired." He said. He then reached into his pocket and pulled out the magatama. "Here's this back."

"Thanks" said Lan, who took it and put it back around his neck "I hope it helped."

"Oh trust me" said Ishiku, yawning, "It did."

He then fell asleep and began snoring a few seconds later.

Lan turned and looked around. Most of the people seemed to be fine, but here and there he saw people mourning their lost husbands, wives, brothers, sisters, and children. The denizens of the cove hadn't gotten out of the attack unscathed. The evacuation had been very successful, but to ask for a 100% success rate in a situation like that was more than anyone could ask for. Many small accidents had claimed the lives of those who hadn't been able to hold out before help arrived.

"A lot of people lost someone important" said Tora, who came and handed Lan a bowl of soup "But don't you worry, we'll be paying those ***** back real soon."

"Mmmm" said Lan who continued looking around the room, seeing each captain pulling together the people who were related to their crew, all except for one. "Hey, where's Anne?"

"She's interrogating one of the Blackstones we captured" said Tora, his eye twitching slightly. "If you listen hard enough you can probably hear the screaming, although I won't be able to tell you the reason why."

"Mmmm" mumbled Lan, who sipped the soup. His face wrinkled and his mouth tightened a moment later. "Ugh, who cooked this?"

"No one, it's basically just a bunch of really old canned stuff that was thrown into a pot of hot water."

"No one can feel better from eating this." Said Lan, getting up "Good food is the band aid for the soul! Wait here, I'll be right back. "

Lan whipped off his clothes, revealing a speedo underneath, grabbed a harpoon, net, and some scuba gear and then dove into the opening leading to sea.

"Wait for me dude!" shouted Trey who did the same.

"Hah" chuckled Tora, he then got up and headed over to Christopher who was sitting in the corner. "You make contact with Nyataro?"

"Yep" said Christopher, who was fiddling with some radio equipment "They found Blackstone Reefs empty, so they just destroyed the whole place. They're on their way here now."

"Great" said Tora.

"We're Back!" came Lan's voice

"My gods that was fast" said Tora, who turned around.

Lan pulled himself out of the water with a net full of fish, shellfish, and crustaceans. On the end of his harpoon, a writhing octopus was speared. Trey pulled himself out of the water a few seconds later, panting heavily and holding a few clams.

Two hours later, people were eating from pots of seafood stew.

"So what's the plan" said Lan, who handed Tora a bowl of stew.

"Noncombatants stay here, and the rest of us head back and destroy" said Tora, who gulped the soup down. "Short and simple."

"But we can't really use the subs" said Lan "I didn't see any weapons on board."

"We ain't taken those tubs boy" said Tora, who wore a mischievous grin. He then walked a short distance and pulled a level disguised as a stalactite. A door opened and revealed an enormous hanger with some old, but still functional ships. "They'll be combat ready in one to two days."

"…need help with repairs?" asked Lan, whose eyes were sparkling.

"Here you go, and make sure you follow the instructions of the guys who know what they're doing" said Tora, who tossed Lan a tool set, "Let's get to work."

Back at Tiger Cove

The remaining airships of the Blackstone fleet had landed and the remaining crew was swarming the beach.

"Damnit!" said Goldhorn as he walked down from his ship "we lost almost half our ships and 2 captains are dead!"

"Well sir, actually Whirl is alive and is currently in the medical—" started a crewmember.

Without breaking stride, Goldorn whipped out his pistol and fired two shots at the man, who then fell to the ground motionless.

"Hey shadow guy, get your butt out here!" shouted Goldhorn

"You called?" said the man who appeared in a puff of smoke.

"Why the hell did we take so many losses?!" yelled Goldhorn "Ariel's gone and Whirl's in a full body cast! You said we were more than ready for anything—"

"Based on the data that was previously acquired." Interrupted Executioner. "We had no opportunity to gather data on the man that could control the stone or the birds that could control dust."

"Shut up!" roared Goldhorn "What matters is that those bastards got away! If they tell that old monster about all this when he comes back then we're all—"

Goldhorn stopped and gritted his teeth, his face shining with sweat.

"Not to worry my dear customer" said Executioner "We will be able to give you access to the latest in tracking technologies, as well as counter measures for any of the new threats we just discovered…for the right price of course."

"PRICE!?" yelled Goldhorn "You expect us to shell out even one more cent after that miserable display?"

"Well why not" said Executioner "From what I can tell, you've just come into possession of a vast amount of resources."

He motioned towards the cove that the Blackstones were currently occupying.

"Why not pay with what you have just acquired?"

Goldhorn growled.

"We'll find what we can scrounge up around here before we discuss anything else."

Goldhorn's mood lightened considerably soon after as he took stock of the goods his men had looted from around the cove. Due to the nature of their trade, the Beast Pirates kept all of their wealth in non-perishable goods that could be sold at a high price, and since they didn't deal in illegal drugs this mainly came in the form hard lien, precious metals and gems, state of the art technology, high quality refined Dust, and rare but legal medicines and drugs.

"This should be more than enough to pay for both the tracking and military services required" said Executioner who floated just behind Goldhorn.

"And still leave plenty of cash for whatever the hell I want to do." Said Goldhorn, who grinned as he admired the mountain of crates stacked in front of him.

"You mean what we want" said Gaius, who appeared right behind him along with Luska and Karcinos.

"Don't worry you'll get your cut" said Goldhorn, who spread his arms wide and smiled. "You'll also get Whirl' cut, that fat turd's lucky enough to get the medical treatment with the sorry display he pulled."

"Shall I take the payment now?" asked Executioner.

"Later boy, later" said Goldhorn "Our defenses have pretty much been set up thanks to those quick set-up turrets, and it'll be at least a day before those vermin come back, so I say we party for tonight, after all we have enough booze thanks to what was in their cellars, and as for meat"

Goldhorn reached down and picked up the charred corpse of a Dust eagle that had fallen in battle.

"We got more than we'll need."

He chuckled slightly, but then frowned as he noticed one of his men nervously hanging around the group.

"Oh, hello sir" said the man who swallowed and wiped sweat from his brow. "I have some news, but it isn't anything urgent so if I'm bothering you—"

"Spit it out before I break your face" said Goldhorn, rolling his eyes.

"Well, we've discovered a kind of tunnel in the back, seems to lead into the Cliffside."

"So what is it?" said Goldhorn "One of their escape routes?"

"Oh no sir, from some documents we found in a hut nearby, apparently it leads to some ancient ruins, and from the looks of it those Beasts were plannin' to take anything valuable from it in a few days."

"Oh is that so" said Goldhorn, his eyes gleaming "Too bad they had to cancel their plans. I guess we'll just have to take advantage then."

"Archeological artifacts can be priceless depending on the person" said Gaius.

"We'll find a price" said Goldhorn chuckling "Come on guys let's check it out."

The group led an entourage to the back of the cove where they found an enormous tunnel, large enough to fit large vehicles through. Ishiku had spent many days widening the tunnel in preparation of the excavation, and had only just finished a day before the attack.

It took them only a few minutes to traverse the tunnels before arriving in the interior.

"Nice place" said Goldhorn looking around

"Maybe we should make this our new HQ after we dig up everything that's worth something" said Gaius.

"Maybe." Said Goldhorn, "But for now, tell the boys that it's time to party!"

Everyone in the entourage let out a cheer and began filing out of the cavern, none of them noticing what was watching them in the dark.

.

.

.

Later that night

"Why do we have to do this shit when everyone else is partying?" grumbled a pirate as he pulled a strange looking vase off a table and loaded it into a cart.

"Captain wants everything of value loaded up by tomorrow morning, and we lost the rock-paper-scissors tournament." Said another guy who loaded it into a cart. "Come on, if we finish our area quick, there'll still be time for chicken and beer."

The first man grumbled, and then continued to load the cart.

After they finished clearing the house they were in, they moved onto the next one, giving a greeting to another group who was being forced to loot while everyone else partied.

"Just that central dome left on our route." Said the first man, pointing to it with his flashlight. After pushing their cart up the slope to the dome, they entered and began looking around for anything valuable.

"Hmmm doesn't seem to be anything we can take in—"

'tink'

The man looked down at the source of the sound near his feet. Illuminated by his flashlight were glittering metallic shards, and from his pirating experience he knew that it was:

"Platinum!" said the man, his eyes lighting up, he knelt down and set his flashlight aside as he began to pick up the pieces.

"Hello drinks for the month", he then stopped as he remembered someone else was in the room with him.

"Don't worry pal" he said without turning around "Goldhorn doesn't need to know about everything we found, and I'll be sure to split it with you, how's 70-30 sound?"

Only silence answered him.

"Oh come on man, I guess that was a little unreasonable but it shouldn't be enough to shock—" he turned his head to look behind and found that he was completely alone.

"Hey man, where are you?" Said the pirate chuckling. When no one answered he slowly got up and said in a shaking voice "This isn't funny man."

What responded to him was a light scuttling noise that echoed all around the inside of the cavern.

"Shit" said the man who quickly pulled out a knife and a pistol.

"Hey!" he yelled, "There's something in here!"

He waited for a few moments but there was not response from the other raiders outside.

"Shit!" he said again, as he bolted for the exit. Suddenly, out of the dark 3 darkish metallic tendrils shot out and wrapped around the hand holding his gun. He screamed and frantically pulled before attempting to cut the tendrils with his knife. The moment his weapon made contact with the tendril, the tendril melted around it like some kind of liquid metal, causing the knife to stick fast. A similar situation was happening with his gun. The man yelled, dropped both his weapons, and bolted for the door. But before he even made it to the threshold he was struck by multiple spike like tendrils, which completed depleted his aura and impaled him through the chest.

The man gasped in pain, gripping the metallic spike, he let out a weak whimper, but stopped as his upper body shuddered slightly and smaller spikes shot out of every hole in his head. The tendril then retracted and pulled the man's corpse into the shadows. A sickening crunching sound was heard and moment later a shapeless mass of bones and meat was thrown into the light of the flashlight. Dozens of tendrils then began to snake out of the darkness, wrapping around stone statues and pulling them into the dark. The tendrils began to expand out further and further pulling in more and more structures from the ruins all around, pulling in everything that could have been fashioned by a sentient mind.

Moments later, the cavern was quiet once again, the ruins seemingly unaltered in the shadows. A little while later the tunnel leading to the cavern was lit by a soft glow and Goldhorn and the other three captains entered.

"Hey!" he yelled, his face slightly red from alcohol "The hell's taking so long?!"

No response.

"Hah? Give me the cold shoulder will ya?!"

Goldhorn pulled out his pistol and began firing randomly into the darkness. It was then that the nightmare began. The shadowy outlines of the ruins dissolved into a writhing dark mass and launched countless thick tendrils towards the 4 captains. Alarmed, they pulled out their weapons and began to fire at, slash, spray poison at, and bludgeon whatever came near them. Luska and Karcinos, who were using melee weapons, were the first victims and soon had their weapons lodged in the writhing mass. They were then quickly entwined with shadowy tendrils and pulled screaming into the dark. Their aura shone brilliantly under the writhing mass for a few moments before quickly being snuffed out.

Now, one of the best qualities in a long lived leader is knowing when to retreat, and both Goldhorn and Gaius saw that this was a losing battle. The two of them bolted into the tunnel and began running towards the exit, a wave of grainy metallic black ooze surging towards them.

"We aren't going to make it like this!" shouted Gaius, who glanced over his shoulder. "We've to bring down the tunnels."

"I'll go right you go left!" shouted Goldhorn who triggered his semblance and switched one of his pistols to Cutlass configuration.

In order for the tunnel be stable, Ishiku had to leave several columns of stone to prop up the ceiling while he made the larger path. It was these columns that Goldhorn and Gaius were aiming for.

Gaius slammed the side of pillars he neared with his gauntlet which emitted a stream of gas that began to eat into the stone. Goldhorn sliced at each column that came near him using the enhanced strength of his golden form. Thanks to this the tunnel began to shake violently and collapse, stones dropping from the ceiling like rain, crashing onto the black ooze that hunted them and impeding its progress.

"I see the exit!" shouted Gaius over the cacophonous collapse of the ceiling behind them.

"Move!" shouted Goldhorn who sprinted as fast as he could.

The two dove right out of the tunnel and moments later the last bit of ceiling came crashing down in a resounding explosion, covering the two in dust and rubble.

The two simply stayed on the ground for a few moments, panting heavily before turning their heads and staring at the mass of rubble that now filled the tunnel.

The two of them then let out a sigh and slowly got to their feet. They then looked at each other before letting out small chuckles and shaking their heads.

"Hey boss!" said a pirate who approached from a nearby party fire. "What happened?"

"Give me that!" said Goldhorn who walked forward and snatched the bottle of rum the man was holding and taking a swig "Now as for what happened—"

Before he could finish, black tendrils erupted from the rubble and ensnared Gaius's ankles.

"Gah, HELP!" shouted Gaius as he collapsed onto his stomach and began clawing at the ground while spraying poison at the tendrils with his free hand. Seeing that his poison was having no effect, Gaius reached his hand out towards Goldhorn.

"MOVE!" shouted Goldhorn, kicking Gaius hand away before turning and running towards where their airships were docked "Get those airships running now!"

The black ooze then erupted from the stone and began to devour everything in its path. The men who were at the first campfire, taken aback by the sudden change of events, had barely any time to react before they were enveloped by the devouring ooze.

"GET TO THE SHIPS!" yelled Goldhorn as he ran to the town "GET YOUR DRUNK ASSES UP AND START PREPPING THE SHIPS."

Very few of the pirates immediately sprang up and began following their captain the moment they heard his voice. Most of them simply looked in their captain's direction with confusion. This would prove to be a fatal mistake. For when they finally noticed the dark wave approaching and began to run, they were already too far behind and were soon enveloped in its dark clutches.

"GET THIS THING AIRBORNE!" shouted Goldhorn as he leapt onto the deck of the nearest ship and witnessed the countless lights in the cove being snuffed out before his eyes.

"We're going as fast as we can!" shouted the engineers who had barely entered the engine room.

The black mass was devouring everything it could lay its hands on: houses, people, everything! The automatic turrets kept firing at the ooze as it came close to the ships, but were soon overtaken, torn apart, and sucked into the ooze.

"It's almost here!" shouted Goldhorn "What's taking so long!"

"We've just about got it!" shouted the men in the engine room.

As if on cue, the ship's engines roared to life and began to lift the mass of metal into the air. Goldhorn let out a sigh of relief, then began laugh before spitting into the dark at the dark mass.

"Yeah! Won't be eating us you—"

'Wham'

The whole airship shook from an impact, causing Goldhorn to fall back onto his rear. He quickly got up and looked over the bow of the ship. Dozens of tendrils were currently connected with the front of the ship, somehow fusing with the metallic surface, and more were attaching each second.

"Put more power to the engines!" shouted Goldhorn, who felt the ship slowly being pulled downwards.

"We've already reached maximum thrust!" shouted one of the engineers down below.

Goldhorn stared out at the black for a moment, his mind in chaos; he then quickly made a decision and ran towards the back of the ship.

"Years of work, all down the drain." Spat Goldhorn as he ran.

The ship became more and more vertical as it was slowly pulled into the dark mass below; forcing Goldhorn's pace to slow, eventually forcing him to climb as he avoided pieces of cargo falling towards the front of the ship. Eventually he reached the back of the ship and his destination, the escape pods.

To his relief he found that they were still there, but growled as he saw a man beginning to clamber into the one nearest him.

"Hey get out!" shouted Goldhorn as he climbed toward it.

"**** you!" shouted the man who opened the door.

Goldhorn then whipped out his pistol and unloaded 6 bullets into the man's Aura and body. He then avoided the falling corpse and dove into the pod, quickly activating it and launching it into the sky. He hardly had any time to breathe though, before he felt the pod shake and stop in its tracks. He looked out and saw that a single tendril had hit and begun fusing with the bottom of pod.

Letting out a cry of wrath and despair, Goldhorn pulled out his cutlass and cut off the top of the pod. He then clambered out and began looked for something, anything that could somehow get him out of this situation. It was then that he noticed something floating far above him.

"Greetings customer." Said Executioner who was floating far above him in his smoke like form.

"Hey! Hurry up and give me hand!" shouted Goldhorn.

Executioner calmly stared into Goldhorn's eyes and with an icy cold voice said : "No."

"WHAT?!" shouted Goldhorn.

"Nowhere in our contract does it say that I must assist you in escaping from such a monstrosity"

"Then we'll write a new one!" shouted Goldhorn "Just hurry up and get me out of here!"

"And what will you pay with?" said Executioner, who waved his hand at the darkness down below "Everything you owned was down there, and I'm afraid my organization does not take credit."

Goldhorn was silent staring with anger and disbelief at the man floating above him. Suddenly the escape pod below him lurched. He looked down and saw an enormous black metallic mass traveling up the tendril to his escape pod. At the same time, the metal beneath his feet burst, and shadowy tendrils wrapped around his ankles. Goldhorn let out a yell of anger and fear and began hacking at his bonds as he activated his semblance, but all this did was get his weapons ensnared by the black mass and pull himself deeper into the darkness below.

"Goodbye my dear customer" said Executioner, who began to float away "It has been a pleasure doing business with you."

"Damn you!" shouted Goldhorn as his torso was covered with the tendrils. He continued shouting angry profanities at Executioner's vanishing form and struggling until his head was finally pulled into the dark mass. The golden light from his semblance shone for a few minutes under the black, but soon flickered and died. The escape pod then lost all power, its engine shutting down, and fell down down into the writhing mass below. The black mass, almost like a writhing lake that was filling up the cove, stayed down below for a few moments, almost as if it were savoring a meal, and then slowly began to recede, pulling back into the cavern from whence it first emerged. Before long the cove was devoid of all movement save for the lapping of waves on the sands of the beach. Far above in countless hidden crevices, a multitude of fearful eyes gazed downwards before quickly retreating further into their dens.

.

.

.

The next day. in the early afternoon 8 warships were soaring through the sky and heading towards the cove.

"Almost there" said Nyataro, his hands folded behind his back. He was currently standing at the head of the bridge in the front most airship and was looking far far ahead at a miniscule patch of land that was drawing ever closer.

"Sir, transmission coming in." said a man at communications.

"Patch it through" said Nyataro.

'Gurgle' 'gu' 'gurglegurgle gurgle'

"Lan, put on your helmet."

After a clanking sound and the sound of water being flushed out, Lan's voice came over the intercom.

"Are we almost there?"

"Soon" said Nyataro "And how are things down there, are you following us okay?"

In response to this an enormous whale breached right below the ships, and riding on its back was a little boy wearing a wetsuit, diving helmet, oxygen tank, and diving backpack.

"Me and my friends are keeping up!" shouted Lan, whose response was accompanied by the emergence of dolphins.

"I still can't believe the old man taught you that, what was it, Aura Soul Speak?" asked Nyataro.

"Close enough!" shouted Lan.

The whale Lan was riding on released a column of water in affirmation, and propelled upwards by the column of water was Ignis, George, and Edel, who all fell right back into the blowhole a few moments later.

"He said don't forget your side of the bargain!" shouted Lan,

"We know, protection from whaling ships for the whales and a month of fish for the dolphins" said Nyataro. "A small price to pay for a good aquatic assault."

"I hope this is necessary" said Ishiku over the intercom, sounding extremely irritable. "The smells on the inside of this whale is not mixing well with my seasickness."

"Don't worry it'll be great!" said Tora who was standing on the bow of his ship. "Simultaneous strike from air and sea! Those Blackstones don't know about all those underwater tunnels so they won't know what hit them!"

"Quiet!" snapped Nyataro "Cease all communications and activate cloaking, we're getting close now."

All hands on all ships did as commanded and activated the cloaking device, which would make the ships unnoticeable by normal equipment. Lan flipped on his helmet as the sea mammals dove back under the waves to make his troop appear to be nothing more than a passing school of sea creatures.

"I sure hope Lan properly taught those fish—" started Tora

"Mammals." Corrected Shiga

Tora stared at his brother for a few moments, before quickly slapping him across the head.

"Whatever" said Tora, who now had his brother in a half-nelson. "Just hope they can use those torpedoes we gave them."

A few minutes later the wall of crags surrounding the cove came into view, and a little later they were almost right in front of it.

"Why isn't anything happening?" thought Nyataro "They should have seen us by now?"

Nyataro closed his eyes for a brief moment, and when he opened them again they were glowing with an amber light, while many veins around his eyes bulged. Nyataro had just activated his semblance which allowed him to see through obstructions and see the presence of other beings. To his surprise, all he saw beyond the crags were small animals and sea creatures that normally inhabit beaches.

"Increase elevation" said Nyataro, "I want to see exactly what is in the cove right now."

This command raised few eyebrows in the bridge, but was executed regardless. After sailing with him for many years, Nyataro's crew had learned to never doubt the man's judgement. Nyataro's ship slowly ascended into the air, and when it had finally risen above the crags confused murmuring began to spread throughout the crew. There was nothing on the cove down below them save for trees, some plants, and rocks. All familiar structures that many of them had grown up looking had vanished.

"The hell!?" yelled Nyataro's first mate. "Did they blow up the whole cove?!"

"No" said Nyatao "If that were the case there would be craters and scorch marks everywhere."

Nyataro then turned on the comms again and gave commands to all nearby ships to rise. Soon after confused babble could be heard scratching through the comms.

"There doesn't seem to be anything dangerous down there" said Nyataro "But it could very well be a trap. For now, send some small scouting ships down to the beach and search the area, and make sure the ships stay ready for a quick extraction at all times."

"Can I come?" came Lan's voice.

"Very well, we'll have one of the scout ships pick you up from the whale."

"Make room for one more" came Ishiku's sick voice "I can't take it much longer, I need land under my feet!"

A minute later Lan and Ishiku were on board a scout ship which soared over the crags and came to a hover above the beach. The doors on the sides then opened and all but the pilot jumped out. Ishiku immediately began kissing the sand and covering himself with it before letting out a huge sigh of relief.

"Are you like mystically linked to the earth and derive spiritual energy from it?" asked Lan.

"Nope" said Ishiku "I just easily get air and seasick. Also, why didn't you take the little guys?"

"They wanted to eat all the fish that was stuck in the whale's baleen." Said Lan

"…Okay then" said Ishiku who let out a sigh and leapt to his feet, "Let's start exploring."

Many small search parties began to fan out from the ships in search of some clue. But the deeper they headed into the cove, the more confused they became. What had happened to everything? And Why were the Blackstones not there?

Eventually, all the search parties converged on the back of the cove.

"All that's left is the inside of those ruins" said a man as he walked up to the tunnels "Well, let's—"

"Wait." Said Ishiku who adjusted his sunglasses as he pushed to the head of the group. He walked to the entrance of the cave and peered inside, his eyebrow raised. He then walked over to one of the sides of the tunnel and rubbed the walls. "Hrrmmm"

"What is it?" said Lan

"These walls" Ishiku knelt down and rubbed the ground as well "I didn't carve them like this."

Lan rubbed his chin for a second and then said

"Maybe the Blackstones damaged them?"

"No. This is way too thorough" said Ishiku. "It's almost as if—"

He paused mid-sentence, his hand still on the ground.

"Run."

"Huh?" asked Lan

"EVERYBODY RUN! BACK TO THE SHIPS NOW!"

Like rats scattering after detecting a threat, every man, woman, and child dashed away from the cave entrance and began to beeline towards the ships hovering at the beach. Moments later, the cave rumbled and from inside of it a black metallic wave of ooze burst out.

"The hell is that!" yelled one of the men in alarm.

"Less talking more running!" yelled Ishiku.

Most of the people were more than halfway to the ships now, but the black ooze was gaining at an incredible rate, there was no was no way they would out run it.

"Shit." Said Ishiku, he didn't have enough time to move or create any large scale rock formations that could block that tide, but there was something he could do. He stopped in his tracks and shouted "This is gonna be a little painful!"

He slammed his fist into the ground, causing dozens of stone pillars to erupt under the feet of the rest of the reconnaissance squad and send them flying towards the ships. When he checked and saw that everyone's trajectories were correct, he prepared to launch himself as well. But at that moment that dark ooze arrived right behind him and rose up in attempt to swallow him.

"Dammit!" shouted Ishiku who instead had stones erupt from the ground and surround him in a spherical shield. The ooze then swallowed the sphere at the same moment everyone else landed in one of the ships.

"Uncle Ishiku!" shouted Lan as the ship he was on rose into the air. But there was no answer only the restless blackness that surged forwards towards them.

"Come on, kids we need to get back to the ship for now" said the pilot "At least we're safe in the ai—"

Before he could finish, black ooze shot off the ground like the water from a geyser and rocketed towards the ships that were quickly rising into the air.

"Holy Shit its coming!" yelled a pilot.

The ships proceeded to fire back at the black sludge unloading all of their bullets and bombs. But every one of these projectiles was simply sucked into the ooze without slowing it down for a second.

"Fire the main cannons!" shouted Nyataro.

"No good the charge won't make it in time!" replied one of the ones at the consoles.

The black ooze was almost upon the scout ships now.

"SHIIIIIIIIIITTTTT!" shouted many in the ships.

But then

'Kin'

The ooze slammed into some kind of invisible wall in the sky, spreading out as if it hit the inside of a dome. At the same time, glowing symbols appeared on the sides of the crags that surrounded the cove, shining with an azure light. Noticing this, the black ooze sent multiple tendrils towards those symbols, but the moment they came close a crackling sound was heard as the tendrils began to disintegrate. An inhuman wail of pain rang across the cove as the ooze withdrew its tendrils.

"Holy shit" said the pilot on Lan's ship "I knew those crags protected us from Grimm somehow, but I never thought it'd be anything like that!"

The ooze then rose upwards in a kind of leech-like shade with multiple tendrils writhing all over in the lake of ooze beneath it, and at the very top of that shape a kind of face formed. Two large holes on top which looked like eyes and below a mouth with line of black ooze between the lips. It let out another roar as it angrily stared up at the ships hovering above, but after its first strike it dared not strike the barrier again.

"Thank all that is holy for uncle Meng's barrier" thought Nyataro as he gazed down with cold sweat on his brow. He didn't know what was going on, but he did know his brother was just swallowed by that thing, and if they wanted to take it down, they would need a real good plan.