Author's Note: …I really need to wash my dishes more often. …Nothing else to say today.

The Story So Far: They found Hiruma and set off one heck of an alarm while getting him free. Now they are dealing with a semi-conscious Hiruma, an exhausted Zork, and some strange lady named Ayla who works for the Elders or something. Now the enemy is on them.

Hidden

By: Bar-Ohki

Chapter 26: Monta, Catch Master

Musashi, 60 Yard Magnum

"Shit." Musashi muttered. Monta and Musashi rushed through the door, being closest to it. It turned out that Ishimaru's warning hadn't been completely accurate; there were several Hunters in the corridor, which didn't spell anything good. One of the Hunters held up his hand and yelled something that sounded like a dog's bark. A large green glowing ball came flying at them.

Monta took a stance that made jumping easy and with a small shift of his feet, he reached out and caught the ball that had been aimed at Musashi's head. The Hunters gasped, apparently that wasn't supposed to happen. Musashi took a few steps back and assumed a kicking stance. Monta didn't need to be told anything, he knelt down and held the green ball like a propped football. Musashi rushed forward and kicked the magical ball, which turned it into a large flaming ball of magma.

Several of the Hunters looked like they were about to shit themselves as the ball of magma came flying at them.

"Can't say I was expecting it to do that." Musashi remarked as he watched the Hunters panic and run around in circles. A few of them had enough sense to try putting up shields, but the ball seemed to blast through them with momentum alone. Eventually someone made a bouncing spell and bounced the ball into one of the doors. The door, of course, melted instantly.

Something purple and gelatinous oozed out of the room. The Hunters nearest the purple stuff passed out. Several of the others clasped their hands on their noses and tried to get away from the purple thing. All of them ran towards the exit, leaving the purple thing to block the way out instead.

"I'm not sure this is any better." Monta muttered, eyeing the purple thing.

That's when the hideous smell hit them.

"Fuck!" Hiruma hissed with a raspy voice from the other side of the giant door, startling Musashi and Monta. The two ran back into the room to see that Hiruma was currently on Togano's back with watering eyes that only occurred when someone was smelling something hideous. The quarterback was trying to pull his hand up to his nose, but his arms were too weak to rise up properly.

"Bezzletrup." Zork muttered with watering eyes. The bag of bones had been tied onto Zork's back and Juumonji had picked up the boy and threw him over his back.

"You're right, they do smell." Kuroki agreed, grimacing as he held the cooler full of blood.

"How aware is Hiruma?" Musashi asked, eyeing his friend with concern.

"Not very, this is the most responsive he's been." Juumonji supplied.

"L-leave!" Komusubi exclaimed. No one really knew what the lineman had meant, but they all had a pretty good guess.

"The bezzletrup is kind of between us and the exit right now…." Monta explained, a little embarrassed.

"Oh dear." Ayla muttered. "I don't have the equipment to put it back…."

"I kind of burned down the door," Musashi told her, "so I don't think we could put it back if we tried."

"…Is there a grue around here?" Zork asked, sounding exhausted.

"Yes, its right across from the bezzletrup's cage-" Ayla was cut off by Zork.

"Grue eat anything that crawl into their territory, all we have to do is lead the bezzletrup in there." Zork explained.

Ayla paused and ran out of the room and accessed one of the hidden computers. She pressed a button and the door across the hall from the bezzletrup slid open. The purple thing oozed towards the open door and sloshed inside. Once a little bit of it was in the shadows, the rest of it was pulled in.

Once the purple thing was gone, Ayla pressed another button and shut the grue's cage.

"That was convenient." Suzuna muttered.

"Is that door enough to stop the grue?" Ishimaru asked, eyeing the door wearily.

"Grue are afraid of light and weak to things like fire." Ayla explained. "We put a door there to keep people from accidently stepping into the dark more than its there to keep the grue in. I didn't know they ate just about anything they got their hands on."

Hiruma made a loud moan, his eyes trying to focus. He looked like he was in a lot of pain.

"Let's get out of here." Juumonji remarked as he tried to steady Zork, the bones, and his shield. No one needed to be told twice, they all rushed down the corridors as quickly as they dared, not wanting to drop anything they were carrying of course. The group went without any further confrontation until they reached the stairs.

At the bottom of the stairs sat a young woman with red hair and green skin. She was checking her purple nails and looking very bored when they arrived.

"The Incubus bones," the woman said suddenly, "will stay here."

"No." Zork growled weakly.

"…Then you will stay here." The woman raised her hand. Blue light began to grow out of her hand like it was some kind of vine. Monta rushed over and grabbed the vine-like light and pulled it to the ground.

The woman leapt to her feet, hissing and pulling on the vine of light. Monta didn't budge, holding the line between the two of them down against the ground. Musashi ran up and kicked at the line, breaking it and turning both ends into magma. Monta picked up his end curiously, it wasn't even hot! The woman, on the other hand, now had a cord of magma bound to her hand. For some reason her hand caught on fire and she started shrieking.

"Nymph." Zork observed groggily, every passing second he was closer to passing out.

"Oh dear." Ayla gasped as they all stood around and watched the woman burn to death alive. Unfortunately she did not burn quickly, nor did she move from her place at the foot of the stairs.

"This is annoying." Kuroki muttered. Monta responded by walking up and grabbing the woman with his gloves and shoving her out of the way.

"…Will she die?" Musashi asked, concerned.

"When she finishes burning she'll be reborn as a seed." Ayla supplied. "With all of her memories and whatnot, so she wouldn't be dead."

Musashi grunted and began to make his way up the stairs, Monta at his heels. The others soon followed.

"What are we going to do when a lot of them attack us at once?" Ayla asked the two in the lead.

"Figure something out." Musashi responded gravely.

_=_=_=_=_

Shorter than the last two, but it had some action!