The Next Dimension Over
Chapter Thirty-four
Honestly, the fall wasn't as bad as it could have been. She had long enough to grab Krillin, pull him toward herself and turn to shield him, and then she slammed into something...springy. And kind of slimy. She didn't even have time to access her seal and transfer mitotic regeneration to him. Nor did she need to.
Slowly, she opened one eye and struggled to adapt to the darkness of the cave. Krillin, too, remained still for a few moments, as if he wasn't certain whether they were harmed by the fall or not. Eventually, though, he flailed out of her grip and pushed himself up and away from her. "I'm fine! I'm fine, let go!"
She frowned slightly, sitting up once Krillin was out of the way. Convenient as it was that they weren't impaled on spikes or something else horrible...why would there be a trap that dropped onto something excessively safe? Maybe if there were something before that had become defunct she could believe the trap being essentially harmless...but a cushion...?
The ground rumbled.
"Finally...it's been so long since I've had a good catch."
The ground hadn't rumbled, it had spoken.
Krillin gave a brief shriek, and then immediately leapt away to a dimly lit ledge nearby, away from...the giant creature they'd landed on. "I-It's a giant octopus!"
She stumbled to her feet and sprinted after him, leaping away from the squishy substance just as something swiped through the air at her. An arm, probably. Below them, an angry looking eye nearly the size of Krillin's entire body glared up at them, glowing a very slight yellow. The light that allowed them to see anything at all in the cave was probably coming from him. It.
"You don't think running will help you escape, will you?" Its laughter echoed off of the walls, and the sound of slithering and splashing water filled the darkness. "Oh no, I've become so hungry...I'll eat you both up in one gulp."
Krillin grit his teeth and slid into a defensive posture, "This isn't good. Giant octopi hide is ridiculously thick and tough!"
So, cutting it would probably be better than hitting it. Unless someone could hit it really hard. Like her. "Come on, let's hurry up and take this thing out before the others get too far away."
The octopus pulled itself up slightly, raising its eyes to settle on them more firmly. "You...should have listened to the tiny snack!"
Water splashed violently in the darkness, and she jumped away from the place she stood, the opposite direction of where she saw Krillin disappear into. There was no telling what the rest of the terrain was like, but standing in place would make it too likely to be caught by one of his many arms, and from there it would be harder to fight. As it was, she landed on one of the flailing appendages, and had to immediately jump again.
Killing him probably wouldn't be too difficult, if they had to. Huge or not, it was still simply an octopus. She'd dealt with worse. But if she did, the dim light of his eyes would be gone, and there'd be no other opportunity to explore the room. Returning by going back up probably wouldn't be that hard...but if the dragonball was in an awkward place, not in an easy to find room...whatever this thing used to get in and out of the cave might actually provide a good way to find it.
And there was the off chance Krillin might actually find his treasure this way after all.
In the darkness, consumed by the gloom of the cave, she heard Krillin give an anguished shout, and the beast next to her gave a triumphant cackle. "You're mine!"
She could only just make out the quick movement of his distant arm as it swung violently into a cave wall, carrying its passenger tightly in its grip. "Krillin!"
No matter how easily the creature could be beaten, a human could only take so much damage themselves. Those kind of impacts...
She slid slightly on stone as she turned, and raced toward where he was held, gathering up chakra in her hand. A tentacle swept in her direction, and she flipped over it. "Let him go!" Her fist collided with the tentacle, and the beast gave a roar of pain, as the impact caused an explosion of force. The half of his leg holding Krillin spiraled into the darkness, and the one attached to him immediately curled inward protectively.
"What a monster!" The octopus actually sounded horrified. As if protecting the person she was watching over had somehow been something terrible of her to do.
She glanced over her shoulder in the direction Krillin fell, searching for signs of movement, but for the moment he seemed still. Maybe he was unconscious, maybe he was still struggling out of the grip of the heavy arm. Two wet and slimy arms curled around her as she turned her attention back to the beast, and pinned her arms and legs together.
"I...I'll crush the life out of you!" The creature growled in anger, as it lifted her into the air above its body.
Breaking free of things like this wasn't exactly her specialty. Chakra worked a certain way in the human body, and the primary method it was expelled through was hands and feet. Certain geniuses were capable of using it in any form all over their body, like Neji Hyuuga had been. She wasn't one of those geniuses.
Using her strength like this was...significantly more difficult.
She grunted, as the air in her lungs was forcibly expelled by the tightening coil around her chest. There were many ways out of this, and some were...far more uncomfortable than others. Getting repeatedly crushed or ripped in half to escape? Not something she wanted to ever explore.
It was an option...but she'd reserve that one for a last resort. Particularly given that it didn't put her in a very good position to protect Krillin once he was of sound mind enough to try attacking again.
Really, it was much more difficult to use her strength in a position like this than most others.
How irritating.
Her seal burst to live on her forehead as she screamed, and strength surged through her arms and legs.
"Wh-what-?!" Its exclamation echoed off of the walls almost as much as her own scream did. New strength forced its way into its limbs, but his time sitting alone in this place, waiting to be fed prey instead of hunting, did no good for its strength. With a final shout, she forced its arm over her head and away from her.
She reached down immediately and ripped its second arm away from its body to free her legs, and then pulled up her fist as she fell down toward it. For an octopus, its wide eyes seemed actually pretty good at expressing its shock, and then its horror.
Her fist slammed through all of its thick hide and protective blubber without even slowing down, and crushed it inward even as the rest of its body cushioned her fall and forced her descent to slow and eventually stop. Dark blood splashed up across her arm and face, and its remaining arms fell about the cave with resounding crashes. Slowly, somewhat regrettably, the light glowing out of its huge eyes faded away, and she was left standing in complete darkness.
Lack of visibility aside, she understood the layout of the room well enough to navigate her way back to where Krillin had landed. "Krillin..."
He gave a pained groan from slightly ahead of her. So...he did survive after all. She'd expected him to, but his silence...had started to worry her a bit.
"Are you okay?"
"Ugh..." He groaned again, and she heard him briefly struggle with the arm of the octopus still wrapped around him. "Uh. Is it...darker in here than before?"
His words didn't sound slurred, so that was also a good sign. Probably, he'd be fine. "The creature is dead. It's what was providing the light at all."
"Ah...great." The air stirred slightly, and she felt him walk up closer to her. "Can't you light something on fire again?"
"We don't have anything to use as a torch." Well, she could use fire jutsu, but without something to burn like wood, it would only last for a moment or two. She already knew the way to get back up to the top, provided they could safely navigate the slippery surface of the octopus without falling down and getting hurt. Probably, they wouldn't need anything like that. "If we're just careful we can probably make it back without the light."
He sighed, and muttered under his breath. "Yeah... but now we can't go looking for treasure here."
"Do you want to go fumbling through here in the dark and look for it?"
"...No."
She nodded slightly, quirking her lips into an amused smile. "Come on, I think I know the way to get back."
"You think you know?" Said as if he actually did know.
She reached down and touched his...head. She'd been aiming for his shoulder, but she slightly misjudged his height and position. She was, after all, a little more used to dealing with Goku than Krillin. "Come on and take my hand. If we get separated we could fall." It might not be so bad falling from the top of the octopus...but then again there could be some jagged rocks or a pitfall she'd missed.
"H-hold your hand? What are you talking about?!" Krillin's voice raised to a slightly higher pitch as she spoke, and he stumbled a step away from her into the darkness.
Really. She didn't completely fail to understand his response, but in the middle of a mission was no time to worry about something like holding a teammate's hand to get out of a dangerous situation.
"Do you have any rope?" She hissed after him, glaring somewhat uselessly into the dark.
He was quiet a moment before he spoke again. "J-just talk and I'll follow your sounds!"
He marched past her in the darkness and continued with a determined tone of voice. "Now...let's just get out of here and find some treasure."
From the other side of the cave, something splashed violently in the water, and she immediately spun toward it, fists gripping in anticipation of another attack.
"Krillin!" The voice that echoed through the room was anything but monstrous. "Sakura?"
(*)
Frankly, he was more than a little worried that the puddle of water Goku jumped into wouldn't actually lead anywhere near to the source of the shouts in the distance, but naturally Goku hadn't left him with any time to say that kind of thing. And maybe that was fair: there was no telling how long it would take to get to them by back tracking, or what splits that other path had that would make it harder to find them. The off chance that the cave might be naturally interconnected in some way by natural wells the way the artificial one had been to the treasure room was probably worth the risk.
Bulma stood a little distance away from him, expression worried, gaze flickering between the place Goku went and himself. The cave had grown quiet again but...that wasn't necessarily a good thing. It could mean anything, without having any more context than 'distant shouts of alarm'.
"Do you think...there might be more sentries that way?"
He frowned at the wall. Like he could just magically will himself to have x-ray vision (which wouldn't be a half bad wish, if he could do it without sounding totally perverted...). "I don't know. It might be another trap that way, if the treasure is over here."
She placed her hand over her forehead and shook her head. "We shouldn't have split up...there's no telling what dangers this kind of place could have!"
"Yeah, well...that's what I said..." He muttered the statement under his breath because...well, it didn't really matter now, did it? They'd been insistent on splitting off, and now everyone had been cut off from each other in some kind of danger. Just like he expected.
No.
He shook his head quickly. Those three were all Muten Roshi's students, and he knew full well how good Goku was as a fighter. Whatever they might encounter, they could probably handle it. Assuming it wasn't just an old fashioned death trap.
Assuming that.
He coughed. "...Just in case, maybe we should go collect the dragonball now."
"Huh?" Bulma looked up at him in confusion.
"We don't know what's over there. If the cave is collapsing or something, we might not have time to go looking for it. So...where did you say it was?"
"O-oh...um." She shook herself slightly, and then frowned in determination down at the dragon radar. "It's over in that corner. I think it's in that other little pool Goku didn't go through."
"Got it."
He needed to be positive. Determined. They weren't dead, they'd show up soon and Krillin would distract everyone just trying to get all the treasure they could carry and totally make everyone forget about the dragonball. Getting that was important. His teammates were fine, probably.
After all, no matter what else...at least while they were underwater, they didn't need to worry about Goku seeing the full moon.