Okay, I'm back again, and guess what time it is? That's right! It's Chapter 6 time! This is the climactic chapter, although not the concluding one. That will be the seventh and final chapter, which follows this one. Anyhow, where we last left off, all the goodies but Gray Wolf were captured by Tyrant-Ula's troops, and Gray Wolf was trapped in a place filled with all of his worst memories and fears, including spiders galore. With no way out. What a suspenseful way to have left this story last chapter! But now we see where it leads to and the climax of this tale! Enjoy!
I own no characters except for Tyrant-Ula. All others belong to Monster Rancher!
Chapter 6-Climactic Carnage Confrontation
Gray Wolf could not fucking believe this at all. It was his worst nightmare made real. Here he was, utterly trapped and unable to do anything. All while all of his worst memories flashed in front of him and so did the one thing he feared most…spiders. They crawled all about rapidly, and the hallucination gas was making it all seem even more horrible than it already was, which was quite a statement.
Needless to say, Gray Wolf had never felt this helpless or frightened in his life. Not even the past few days. He realized he could do nothing but scream. "HEEEEEELLLLLLLPPPP!" Gray Wolf screamed out in terror. "MAKE IT STOP! PUT AN END TO IT! PLEASE!" He was fully unable to help himself. He'd been ignoring his fear up to this point, but now that he was trapped and could do nothing about it, plus he'd been suppressing his phobia for so long, he was not at all able to make it last another second, and all he'd been containing broke open and overtook his mind and spirit.
And things only got worse. Because suddenly the gases cleared and the hallucinations went away along with the envisioning of his worst memories…only for Gray Wolf to have no time to take a deep breath from the sudden release before he saw countless spiders right in front of him on the floor and around him on the walls, not to mention above him on the ceilings. And they were all too real. No denying it at all.
"OH, GOD…" Gray Wolf gaped, going extremely white. He wanted to find some way to get back his usual courage, but it was proving impossible. To his further fear and embarrassment, but mostly the former, he felt like a puppy again. Like the little puppy he once was who had the great misfortune to have that spider crawl onto his face and spark his arachnophobia. And now it was all coming back in spades.
A bunch of wolf spiders leapt onto him along with a bunch of jumping spiders, and his heart rate increased by an amazing order of magnitude. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" he screamed in an immense amount of fright. But this was far from all these spiders, who he could tell were without a doubt ordered by Tyrant-Ula to finish him after a while of terror torture, had in store for him. A lot of tarantulas and funnel web spiders crawled up around his feet and then up his legs and tail. Gray Wolf howled in fear and ran about, shaking his body and slamming against the walls to try and get these spiders off of him and/or crush them flat.
Only a few came off or got crushed, though, and Gray Wolf then was seeing more spiders, this time funnel web ones and black widows, along with brown recluses and orb spiders, crawl all along the corners of the walls before dropping their webs down onto his back and into his mane.
"E-RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" Gray Wolf shouted and his heart was pounding faster than ever, the fear burning through his body like a long, hot, iron crowbar. And also cutting through it like a hot knife through butter. "NO! This isn't happening!" thought Gray Wolf. "My friends need me! So does my damn brother! I can't break down in fear! I just can't!"
But all of the spiders attacking the poor wolf yelled in unison: "YOU CAN AND YOU WILL, PUPPY DOG!" Gray Wolf realized they had read his mind. But he had little time to think as to how the hell that was possible, because dozens of spiders of various sizes and colors now shot webbing at him and wrapped him up with it so that he was standing on all fours but tied down to the ground.
He yowled like a newborn wolf. He couldn't help it. He was alarmed he hadn't just plain outright died of fright already, he was so frightened. And it only got worse for him as he was crawled all over his face, including his eyes and horns, by several little, medium sized and big spiders, the big ones mostly being bird eaters.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Gray Wolf screeched, and the spiders kept on crawling all over him. Although he managed to muster up just enough courage to slash free of the webbing, his attempts to run about and find some way to defend himself were derailed when many more spiders dropped down and jumped across at him and the force of such an attack made it so he fell over onto the floor. The spiders then began swarming more than ever all over Gray Wolf, who was now paralyzed with fear.
He thought to himself as they kept on crawling about and sinisterly laughing: "Dear God…this can't be it! I can't die like this! Not as a coward! Not as a failure! Not as someone who couldn't save the brother and comrades who counted on him! But I'm so terrified! I'm being covered with more spiders than I've ever seen in my life or any of my nightmares! I can't get them off! Why must I be put in this position?"
He couldn't talk, he was so frightened. He couldn't move, he was so terrified. He couldn't think straight any further than what you just read, he was so petrified. He was also barely at all capable of being seen under so many spiders. Gray Wolf was slashed and afflicted with a horrible ache of emotional pain at the thought of his friends dying because he succumbed to his longtime fear. He couldn't even bear to think what Tiger would think of him now. And the fact he was trembling all over with every hair abristle and shaking more than a seismic disaster certainly did not help. His eyes were opened wide and looked just as scared as he was in reality.
"Why me?" Gray Wolf thought. "Why is it I had to suffer such a fate? And with my brother and friends suffering just as bad or worse a fate, no less? Why them? Why Tiger, especially? Why any of us? DAMN YOU, GRAY WOLF! ARE YOU SO MUCH OF A COWARD YOU CAN'T DO SHIT ABOUT YOUR FEAR WHILE YOUR FRIENDS GET KILLED, AND AFTER ALL THEY DID FOR YOU?" But then more fear than ever overlapped his emotions, if that was possible by now.
Suddenly, however, something inside of Gray Wolf changed. His previously frightened eyes suddenly closed and then opened widely, looking far more cool, determined, brave and like his true self. His care for his brother and his friends, and his knowledge they needed him, plus, of course, Tyrant-Ula needed to be stopped, was suddenly realized by him as being stronger than his fear. His determination was, as well, as was his bravery and spirit.
Why it took so long to see this for the reality it was, he didn't know, but that didn't matter to him right now, because there were far more immediate things at stake. He stood up furiously and roared: "GET THE FUCK OFF ME, YOU PUNY BASTARDS!"
"WHAT THE HELL?" exclaimed a black widow, who was as flabbergasted as all of the other countless spiders who Gray Wolf was now shaking off of himself and also destroying with every single attack, power, skill and move that he possessed. Although his heart was pounding almost as fast as it had been before, this time it was with vigor, bloodlust and determination.
"I WILL TELL YOU WHAT THE HELL!" Gray Wolf yelled. "WHAT IF THERE ARE THINGS THAT SURPASS HOW AFRAID OF SPIDERS LIKE YOU I AM? WHAT IF MY NEED TO HELP MY BROTHER AND FRIENDS IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN HOW MUCH YOU FUCKING SCARE ME? WHAT IF I FACE YOU LIKE ANYONE ELSE FACES HIS OR HER FEARS AND WIN WITH MY SUPERIOR-ASS ABILITIES? DIE, MONSTERS!"
He went berserk and by the time he was done unloading everything he had everyone, all of the countless spiders lay dead, the webs were burned to a crisp and the area he'd been in was all but torn to the goddamn ground. Gray Wolf realized he'd won and howled: "YEAH! I DID IT! I'M VICTORIOUS! SUCK THAT, SPIDER SCUM!"
After this, he caught his breath and thought: "That's it for this part of my objective, but now it's time for the next two and most important parts. One, save my friends and my brother…I PRAY TO GOD I'M NOT TOO LATE…and two, most predictably…" He snarled this last part out loud while bearing his teeth and making his eyes become very, very, very angry, aggressive, merciless and bloodthirsty in appearance, clearly putting on his fearless, feral face. "…DESTROY TYRANT-ULA."
So he took off from where he was and used his super-sharp senses to track Tyrant-Ula to where he was in his kingdom region of the lair he ruled. Let's take a look at that central area of the region in question. Tyrant-Ula was currently on his throne, with several subjects surrounding him and the nine goodies who he had captured laid down right in front of him and tied down to the floors in webbing.
Yep, the ones who captured them brought them to him and he had them tied down with webbing side by side. He was most pleased at this…he would enjoy gloating to them and as such crushing their hopes and dreams before having them eaten and drained of blood both by him and his subjects, including the ones who'd captured them, many of which flanked his throne.
"So, you nine, you finally enter your final moments of life." Tyrant-Ula stated. "You'll never get away with this, Tyrant-Ula." Pixie told him. "Oh, but I'm getting away with it as we speak, bitch." Tyrant-Ula replied proudly. "Your brother, Tiger of the Wind, is currently trapped in a special corridor of mine, being literally scared to death, as well as driven to death as he is being driven mad not only by his fear of spiders like me, but by his worst of memories, including his baddy days." "NO!" Tiger shouted. "Yes." Tyrant-Ula replied. "It is happening as we speak. I think it will only be a matter of time before he becomes petrified enough to perish."
"You are lying!" roared Tiger. "One way or the other, we'll pull through and put a stop to you and all you vile spider slaves!" Genki shouted. "Chi! You'll fall, Chi!" "Empty words from a myriad of equally empty minds!" Tyrant-Ula retorted. "Now, my subjects, since you did such an amazingly fine job of capturing this bunch while I dealt with our easiest target, I shall allow you to choose what order we feast on their flesh and binge on their blood in." "We'll not give in even now!" Big Blue shouted. "Golem second that!" Golem added. Despite how uneasy she was, there was still a sentence from Holly of: "We will resist you as much as possible, and even if we are in the end killed, we'll at least have died as real goodies!"
"Very brave words, and very fitting for famous last words!" Tyrant-Ula told them. "Well, Tiger, this is it," Hare said, "so before we all die and become spider snacks, I want the last words you hear to be this…YOUR BROTHER IS A COWARD AND IT'S HIS FAULT WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE NOW! ALL BECAUSE HE WAS DO AFRAID TO DO ANYTHING BUT JUST SUCCUMB! SHOWS HOW WELL YOU RAISED HIM!"
"FUCK YOU, HARE!" exploded an extremely infuriated Tiger. "JUST FOR THAT, I HOPE YOU GET EATEN FIRST! GRAY WOLF IS NOT A DAMN COWARD, AND IF ANYTHING, YOU ARE! AND IF YOU HAD YOUR OWN BROTHER, YOU'D JUST RAISE HIM TO CARE ABOUT NOTHING BUT MONEY, ANYWAY! SO UP YOURS!" He bit Hare on the ears and snarled: "That's for all the grief you ever gave me and Gray Wolf in the past! Since we're gonna perish, I thought I should give you that comeuppance now!"
"Why, you!" yelled Hare, trying to ignore the pain as the spiders came at them. "If I was free, I'd kick your ass!" "This from the one who only nailed me once, and due to cheating!" a retort from Tiger consisted of. "And who always chickens out!" "Come on, guys!" Holly cried. "Do you have to fight like that even when we're in our final moments?" Tiger stopped and so did Hare, though they refused to look at each other. Tyrant-Ula said: "My, that was entertaining. Do be sure to eat them last for giving us such a fun show, whatever order you pick. But for now, do whatever you will with the others, but make sure to save the best parts of all of them for your one and only king." "Will do, Tyrant-Ula!" a drone replied.
Tyrant-Ula started laughing evilly and the spiders advanced upon the nine goodies, then crawled up them and got ready to sink their fangs into the first one they chose. All of a sudden, however, lightning bolts, ice breath, wind attacks and speedy slashing moves went all about the region of the lair, much to the shock of Tyrant-Ula. All the other spiders would have been just as shocked, but they were quickly destroyed one way or the other. The nine goodies, along with an astounded Tyrant-Ula, looked to see who had done this. And it was, in fact, GRAY WOLF!
"GRAY WOLF!" all of the nine goodies exclaimed in unison. "Brother! You're alive!" Tiger howled. "Indeed, I am!" Gray Wolf roared. "And I'm just as ready to show Tyrant-Ula all the what-for I can dish out, which is endless multitudes of it!" "How is this possible?" screamed Tyrant-Ula. "I left you trapped in your own fears to die!" "I was able to find it in me to make it so my determination and care for my brother and friends overcame my still existent but nicely suppressed for now fear of spiders such as yourself!" Gray Wolf answered. "Then I let my feral rage loose and destroyed everything in that shithole place you left me in and the place itself! As soon as I did that, I tracked you down to where your throne hole was! And it looks like just in the nick of time!" He then used his lightning attacks to blast apart the webbing tying down his pals.
"YEAH! We're free!" "Chi!" Mocchi added. "I knew you wouldn't fail, brother!" Tiger told him. "And you were right, brother!" Gray Wolf replied. "Oh, Gray Wolf! We cannot begin to thank or congratulate you enough!" Holly said. "But wait!" Pixie pointed out. "As grateful as we are, and as pleased as we are you've managed this, there is one more thing to deal with here." "That there is, Pixie!" Gray Wolf replied. "All the other evil spiders under here have been killed. Now only Tyrant-Ula remains." "Let's get him, then!" Big Blue shouted. "Chi!" Mocchi yelled.
"No." Gray Wolf told the others. "Usually, we'd do it as a group, but since he is the full epitome of everything that created my arachnophobia, and since I have to conquer my fear, plus make sure none of you are endangered again today, it has to be just him and me. There's no other way." The others understood and Gray Wolf jumped down in front of Tyrant-Ula, who then did a leap off of his throne and landed directly in front of Gray Wolf while the other goodies were told by Genki: "I think this is our cue to go. Tiger, you can track the exit, can't you?" "I can, but we must not leave without my brother! We must wait until he's won!" "No, brother." Gray Wolf in the next instant said. "It's best you leave. I will meet you on the surface after this is over."
Tiger sighed, realizing the reality of his brother's words: "All right. Everyone follow me. I will await your resurfacing, brother." He took off along with the others, and Hare said: "Phew! Am I ever glad to be finally getting the hell outta this place!" Tiger tracked down the exit with his super-senses, and Gray Wolf told him while he and the others took their leave: "I'll find you, brother. Just as soon as I squash Tyrant-Ula like the bug that he is." "That was a very, very, very foolish move on your part, Gray Wolf." Tyrant-Ula told him. "Now they can be full certain to be minus one comrade, and Tiger short one brother." "Wrong." Gray Wolf replied. "Both of us are starting this fight, but only one of us will be alive at the end."
"Precisely." Tyrant-Ula stated. "And believe me, Gray Wolf, I will devour your brother and friends right after I do the same to you." "Is that a fact?" asked Gray Wolf. "Pardon me for not believing you for shit." "So insolent. I'm amazed you could overcome and face your fear of me and my kind like this." Tyrant-Ula told Gray Wolf. "But before I murder you, I might as well reveal facts you probably never knew, all of which have to do with the fear you've managed to conquer for the time being." "Really now." Gray Wolf responded cynically. "Like what, jerk?"
Tyrant-Ula began: "I have been around for thousands of years. And during those years, I would discover a great many potential victims and utterly destroy them one way or the other, in the end either devouring them or letting them live with a derailed life and a fate worse than death as such. In your case, however, I saw you as one when you were a puppy, under the right sorts of circumstances. So I sent the very spider that attached itself to your face and sparked your fear of us to do what it did. It was, in fact, a minion of mine. And although he's gone now, due to how long ago that was and his not being long-lasting like me, it changes not the fact I sent him to get what would one day be a perfect kind of victim for me. Furthermore, it was I who sent that big spider who freaked you out a few nights ago in the cave, even though he got crushed by your big rock and ice monster friend in the end. He, too, was a minion of mine. And the same goes for the spider which dropped down in front of you just as that stupid girl used her amulet to help to cure you of your fear, so you'd still have it."
"So, it was all your doing, was it, Tyrant-Ula?" asked Gray Wolf. "All of it!" Tyrant-Ula replied boastfully. "And of course you know it was me who made sure you got the wrong kind of medicine and made you delusional and delirious! Oh, sure, it was put a stop to before any TRUE damage was done, and the doctor was found out to be innocent, but it changes not what I created for you. Just as I created the trap I put you in for you. And now, even as you freed yourself, were able to put your fear aside from the time being and save your friends, it will be me who ends the life you've lived up to this point, and as averse to spiders as you lived it!"
He let out an evil laugh, thinking these words would cause Gray Wolf unbearable pain, but Gray Wolf did not break under these revelations. Instead, he snarled: "So you pulled all of this shit, endangered my friends and those villagers and caused all this havoc and misleading. All for the sake of the power and chaos you crave so greedily." "Indeed, and it will serve as part of what one day leads to my world conquest!" Tyrant-Ula replied. "I don't care if it takes another fucking millennium. I WILL RULE THIS EARTH!" "No, you won't, and you won't be doing anything ever again, either." Gray Wolf responded. "You thought to break me, and before and after trying for that, you meant to do other things to ensure conquest of the Earth. But what you did not count on was that the power of my friendship with the group I'm now with and the love my brother and I eternally share was far stronger than any evil you could dish out. Any atrocity or vile act you could commit. Any move you could make. And you never understood such things as love, friendship or anything but tyranny, power, greed, chaos and evil. It is exactly this which made it so you could not break us, and it is exactly this which will make it so I take you down once and for all!"
"HA! Such bullshit, tommy rot rubbish!" Tyrant-Ula spat, and Gray Wolf knew as much as he did the moment was seconds away. "Your arrogance blinds you as much as your lack of any soul, spirit or redeeming qualities does. Just like your greed and tyrannical hunger for power. Pitiful." Gray Wolf replied. "And from what I know of you, having your minions do everything for you, you're seeming to me like all talk and no action, asshole. Which makes you as unfit to be a ruler as anything possibly can. You do what you do for nothing but power, adding to your already over-inflated pride and to thrive on terror. I, on the other hand, do what I do for atoning for past wrongs, the greater good and the sake of the future, my brother and my friends. Which is why you will never defeat me. Not physically, not mentally and certainly not spiritually!"
"LIES!" roared Tyrant-Ula, and as of this moment, their fight began. "I WILL CRUSH YOU WITH USE OF ALL MY POWER AND WITH YOUR FEAR YOU TRY SO HARD TO IGNORE!" But Gray Wolf dodged the front leg swipe of Tyrant-Ula and slashed him down the head with his claws, going: "Once more, you are wrong, and your lack of knowledge is one of so many things which will make sure this is the final time you'll ever wreak your reign of terror on any part of this world!" "AAAAAAAA!" Tyrant-Ula screamed, but then he hit Gray Wolf with another of his legs and knocked him against a wall. "How dare you cut me like that, dog!"
But Gray Wolf got up, fired lightning at Tyrant-Ula and thought: "To think this is the # 1 moment of me facing my worst fear, especially now that I know he was the cause of it all! Well, I didn't fail before, and I certainly won't fail or give up now of all times!" Tyrant-Ula yelled in pain but he fired a web onto Gray Wolf and stuck him to the wall. Then he crawled onto it and asked: "Tell me, canine, how does it feel to realize even with all your newfound advantages, you still will not be able to defeat me?" He battered Gray Wolf with his legs, but Gray Wolf bit his head and slashed himself free of the web.
He then leapt back, ignoring the blood spilling out from his mouth and visible in patches on his body, and replied: "It doesn't feel like anything, because that's not how it is, dipshit!" An instant later, Tyrant-Ula leapt on Gray Wolf and pinned him to the ground, responding to this cut of a retort with: "For that snide remark, you shall be devoured by me one piece at a time!" But an instant after that, Gray Wolf shoved Tyrant-Ula off of him with his feet. He hit the wall, but then leapt back down and went: "So, you've lasted much longer than I expected!"
"Yes, and I'm going to last that long and all the way through the rest of my life, whereas yours is getting cut short!" Gray Wolf replied. He nailed Tyrant-Ula with a wind attack, but then Tyrant-Ula battered him with web projectiles galore and told him: "Think again, prey of mine!" He then leapt at Gray Wolf and shape-shifted into every familiar face he knew and every spider there was in rapid succession. While doing this, he nailed Gray Wolf with at least two attacks from each form, but Gray Wolf would not back down. As he looked like he was about to keel on over, Tyrant-Ula told him: "BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! I have won! And now I'll drain your blood, feast on your flesh and allow your lost disk to serve as a trophy! And, Gray Wolf?"
He leapt at him and added: "You've had this coming for God only knows how long!" But Gray Wolf was not beaten and he recovered just in time to counterattack with an ice breath blow move. It froze Tyrant-Ula solid and Gray Wolf retorted: "You're a fine one to talk, Tyrant-Ula! But talk is something you will never do again as of now, and so is everything else, for that damn matter!" He unloaded all of his tail, claw, horn, tooth and speed related attacks onto Tyrant-Ula, then he, as more and more blood spilled out of him from the beating he got and the pain also got worse by the second for the same reason, was able to ignore it just long enough to hit his frozen foe with a lightning attack. He then looked up, saw a huge, long, thick stalactite and blasted it off of where it was held with one more lightning attack.
Then it fell down and landed directly in the center of the frozen Tyrant-Ula, point first. In the process, well, it doesn't take a genius to find out what resulted from this. Tyrant-Ula was as much impaled dead as he was broken and shattered to pieces. Gray Wolf then roared out in his loudest of howls: "VICTORY! I HAVE WON! TYRANT-ULA IS DEAD, THE FUTURE IS SAVED FROM HIM ALONG WITH INNOCENTS AND MY GROUP, AND I HAVE FULLY CONQUERED MY FEAR!" But then he realized that he had to take off out of here and meet with his friends back on the surface fast, due to how injured he was and how much blood he lost.
So he used his senses to find his way to the exit along with his speed, all while thinking: "But more time to celebrate later. Right now, I have to make it out alive and make sure I'm able to reunite with my fellow goodies before I either bleed to death or pass out, preferably the latter." Thankfully, he was able to find his way out and quickly saw his fellow goodies, who saw him in the distance as he ran towards them. "What the…who's that?" asked Hare. "Wait…it looks like Gray Wolf!" exclaimed Suezo. "Chi!" Mocchi added. "It's your brother, Tiger, Chi!" All of them ran for the approaching Gray Wolf, talking up a storm while going towards him to reunite, and, in Tiger's case, embrace him.
"Holy God, you're right!" exclaimed Tiger. "Gray Wolf! Brother!" "He's alive! That must mean he's done it!" Pixie shouted. "You mean he's won? Tyrant-Ula is gone?" Genki's exclamation came from. "And he's alive, as well, most importantly?" "It's the only way we can see him coming towards us!" Holly went out delightedly. "And my amulet is showing this is, in fact, the case!" "YES!" Tiger shouted. "I KNEW HE'D WIN!" "Golem so proud of Gray Wolf, it's not even funny!" Golem put in. He was especially so due to still remembering how just a few days ago, Gray Wolf had clung to him to keep away from Tyrant-Ula's sent servant.
"Come to us now, Gray Wolf! You have made it so it is over, and we wish to commend you and bring you home with us!" Big Blue called. "Which you well deserve after all you have been through, brother!" Tiger added in. But when they got to where Gray Wolf was and vice versa, they saw what hideous shape he was in. Much to their shock, of course. "Although…I understand fully…why you have said what you did…and done what you did…" Gray Wolf told them in small gasps of short breath, "…I think before…anything else…I will need some help with these…wounds…done to me…" He then keeled over and passed out.
A few hours later, Gray Wolf awoke, and he saw that he was, in fact, back in the cave with all of the other goodies. He also noticed Holly was making some hot soup on a fire nearby, plus that Tiger was lying down on his stomach right next to him and keeping him company as much as putting a comforting paw over him and licking his wounded areas.
He realized instantly what this meant. "They must have brought me back here while I was out and started treating my injuries. Good to know. Although, I wish I didn't have to feel like a little puppy one last time. But there's no accounting for bodily damage, I suppose…"
TO BE CONCLUDED…
So, this was the second to last chapter, and the climactic one, as well? What did you think of such a climax? Please rate and review, and I am hoping you will enjoy the last chapter, which will follow this one as soon as I get the chance to write it!