Chapter 11: A new friend

Rex woke up with a start. He jet out of his bed, and stood on his feet. The sun shone into the blinds of his little structure that he was escorted to the day before. Rex supposed that getting a head start on his day was the best option, and he had the large task of getting home ahead of him, but this time, it was on his own, entirely. He grabbed his bag, and walked out the door. There were groups of the creatures from before walking around and conversing, as well as the 3 or 4 structures that were scattered on the grassy hilltops. Everything had come to him in a blur, with finding out who the disembodied voice was, and learning that his friends had been helping them as much as he could, and a whole buncha other stuff. Rex breathed in some fresh air, and started setting off towards the direction that wasn't the same way as the war he had come across.

As he passed by the final structure, a thought penetrated his mind, the fog snake that revealed itself to him when he was with Alicia. He also said that he was the disembodied voice, before seining him away. Rex went to turn around to go back and ask the Elder if he knew anything about that, but, sure enough, all of the buildings were gone, leaving nothing but a flat expanse in front of him. There were the same creatures walking around the area, minding their own business, but this time, they were blue, instead of orange. He approached one and waved to it. It waved back, smiling, giving him a greeting in their own language. They weren't the same creatures anymore. That was obvious.

Rex went back and headed the way he was originally traveling, in the opposite direction of the war grounds. He had no intention of being caught up in that struggle between the purple-robes and the Apex. He didn't even know which side was the GOOD one, if there was any, that is. As he continued on his way, occasionally stopping to mine some trees and some stone and ores, Rex began thinking. There was NO WAY he was going to stay on this planet with that war going on, but that would be another large waste of fuel, so he resolved to collect enough materials and coal before leaving, to make up for the lost amount. After walking a bit more, he stumbled upon the mouth to a cave, and instinctively walked into it. He needed resources anyways, right?

The cave was narrow, and Rex eventually had to crawl a little bit, banging his head on the ceiling a number of times before he was able to stand up again. On the other side of the narrow gap, he took out his flashlight and shone it around the room. It still went further diagonally down, and the light from Rex's flashlight could only shine so far, so he started walking. He took out his alternate sword, as it only required one hand so that he could use the flashlight as well, and continued down the dark and surprisingly creepy cave. He heard footsteps behind him and spun around, holding his sword out in front of him at the neck of the figure that was sneaking up behind him. It was an Apex, about Rex's hight, if not a small bit taller. The Apex raised his hands in surrender, and Rex lowered his blade.

"….Hi?" Rex said, confused.

"Oh, u-uhm, hi…" The Apex said, tearing up. "Y-you're gonna kill me now, aren't you!?"

That question caught Rex off guard a bit, and he sorta jumped back. The sound of his yell echoed against the wall, and kinda hurt his ears. "No, no! Why would I kill you?"

"B-but aren't Florans s-sided with the cultists?"

"…Cultists?"

Now the Apex was the one that looked shocked. "You don't know the cultists? The purple ones?"

"Oh THAT'S who those are. Sorry, no. I'm not sided with them. They sorta lost any chance of me joining them when they tried to kill me." Rex heard the sound of rapid footsteps and a screech behind him, and turn around to swing his sword in a circle, effectively slicing the monster in half.

"W-woah… Uhm, anyways, so you're not going to hurt me?"

"Nope."

"Oh, okay…" He looked kind of grateful, actually. "Thanks."

"Eh. …Wait… You're, like, a child, aren't you?"

"I'm 15, yes."

"…And you have armor?"

"Yes, I'm in the war…"

"WHAT!? But, but you're just a kid! Why would you enroll in something like this?"

"I shouldn't be talking to anyone about this, but… We were forced into this… We didn't have a choice."

"…" Rex just kinda stood there for a bit in a disgusted awe, closing his eyes and patting his head with two fingers, pondering what he just heard.

"Well… I need to get going… We never saw each other, okay?" And he walked past him, down farther into the cave, which was the same direction Rex was heading. In courtesy for the Apex, he waited a bit, before going down the cave too.

He didn't walk far before coming to a brutal sight. The Apex that he had just spoken to was on the ground, GIANT gashes visible on it's body. There were a few knives imbedded in his chest, and he was bleeding, even though it looked like there wasn't anymore blood to lose. He was dead. A kid, just like Rex, and dead. He stepped around the body, and walked into an expansive room, that seemed too perfectly dome-shaped to be natural. He heard swift movement around him, and used his matter manipulator to place down a few torches. After which, he pulled out his primary sword, and held it in a ready position.

His ears picked up sound behind him, and he turned around in a slash, getting the figure on the side. It flew to the floor, and rex leaped in the air, hearing the other sounds behind him. He took his sword and plunged downward, landing his blade in a figures back. He pulled it out and looked at the figure. It was a cultist, and, most likely the owner of one of the daggers that was stuck in the Apex. A flame could be heard behind him, and he saw a cultist running at him with a torch in his hand. When he was a few feet away from Rex, he threw the flaming stick, which Rex slashed at, catching his blade on fire. He used that to slash at the cultist, burning it to ashes, before the flame diminished and it was just a blade. He resolved to leave immediately. He wanted nothing to do with the war, whatsoever.

Rex pulled out his pickax and began to make a gradual staircase towards the surface. It was going at a fair pace until his pickax broke. The stone literally chiseled and the wooden handle was split in half. Another thing. Rex left all of his crating table supplies on the ship. He planned on using the wood he had to make his own crafting table, but was stopped by a creepy sound behind him. He turned around to come face to face with an arachnid-type creature. Rex hated spiders, with a passion. In a moment of, he slashed the arachnid down the middle and ran in between it's two halves. He got back to where he started his cave to see the whole that he just just come through fill with the monsters. He had no choice but to run around the room and hope there was another way out.

It was then that an explosion could be heard, as well, as the part of the wall above Rex blasted open with a few Apex flying out. Rex took this opportunity to jump up and climb through the hole that the blast made. Once he made it up, his eyes met those of a cultist, but it didn't attack him. Instead, it jerked it's head towards a section of the wall that led deeper into the cave, then proceeded to act like Rex wasn't even there. Without protesting, he ran down the cave path. after a while, he turned around to see the arachnids closing in on the cultist. In the final second, he could see the purple-robbed humanoid give Rex a nod, before pulling a lever that caused an explosion that made rocks fall to the ground, creating a makeshift wall that separated him and the monsters. There wasn't any real option except to go down the cave that he was stuck going down, so he began to trek the undergrounds.

After what felt like an eternity of walking down the hallway, Rex came to a sorta dome-shaped room. There were bodies scattering the floor. A mixture of monsters, Apex, and the Cultists made up this unearthly sight, and the fact that they were already decomposing didn't exactly help with making the scene look any less scary. Something that caught his eye was the unmistakable shape of a pickax lying in the grasp of a cultist that lay on the floor. Rex grabbed for it, and the cultist flipped over and jumped to it's feet, attempting to smack Rex on the the head with the mining tool. As if atone to a reaction, he pulled the cultist to the ground and severed it's arm with his blade. Then he pushed the body to the wall with such force, that if the cultist wasn't already dead, it probably didn't have any bones left working. He leaped back a bit in shock from what he had done, still holding onto the pickax in one had, and his sword in another. He kept the tool anyways, putting the sword away in his inventory. That guy wasn't going to need it anymore anyways.

• • •

Rex finally dug the last bit of Earth that led to the surface, and used his matter manipulator to close the hole that he just came through, just incase someone or something had followed him. He looked around to a peaceful sight. It was the top of a fairly short hill, and the sun was nearly gone already, but light still shined brightly. The area was hardly wooded, but trees were still littering the grounds here and there. The hilltop was pretty expansive, and seemed like the perfect location to make a base of operations. It was a shame that the planet was infested with war, it was such a pretty place. And this was the first planet where Rex had found any sort of creature that WASN'T hostile towards him, too. But the war and arachnid creatures were a deal breaker. It there's one thing that Rex hates, it's heights. If it's anything else, it's arachnids.. More specifically, spiders. They're, like, the bane of his existence.

He began to walk a bit on the surface of the planet in an attempt to find a bit of water to clean himself with. His underground travels and lack of vision caused him to fall over in the mud and dirt a painful amount of times. The sun was setting, and practically gone already, but the urgency to find some water and teleport off the planet didn't seem that urgent. After a while, he noticed a lone house sitting somewhere not that far from his location. I feel bad for whoever has to actually live here… Rex thought, as he walked past it, paying it very little attention.

As he walked down his path, he heard some doors opening and the sound of a female screaming behind him. He turned around to see some cultists entering the house at a rapid pace, like they had a job to do and this wasn't it. He ran back in burst through the doorway to see three Cultists surrounding an Avian girl that was curled up in a ball against the wall. One of the Cultists raised it's sword to slash the girl, and Rex used the time he had before the swing to flip over the head of the Cultist and slash the sword out of it's hand while he was in the air. He landed in a fighting stance, his back facing Avian, with three Cultists in his sight. "You know…" Rex said. "I've heard that breaking and entering is illegal."

"Are you joking yourself into a grave, unusual Floran?" One of the Cultists asked.

Unusual Floran? Why did he call me the- ooohhh… Rex thought. Florans aren't suppose to be literate. He almost forgot about that, not ever meeting any other Floran except Malix to remind him of this. One of the Cultists lunged, which Rex used the momentum of to fling at another one, knocking them both down. He followed this up with a sword swipe, effectively killing two. Rex knocked their bodies out of the house, while the last Cultist attempted to run away. Rex chased it to the edge of the hilltop, where the Cultist jumped off and landed, finding itself home-free. Rex took out his bow, and successfully sniped the purple-robed being in the back, forcing the body to collapse to the ground.

Rex put away his weapons, returning to the house to see the Avian girl curled up in terror, looking at Rex like he was a murderer, and she was next. He extended a hand, trying his best not to look threatening. His Floran form wasn't exactly making it easy. "You alright?" He asked. It's just common courtesy to ask someone if they're okay, after all.

"Y-yeah…" The Avian replied, accepted Rex's hand as he pulled her up to her feet. "Thanks.."

Rex nodded and began to walk out of the door.

"W-wait…!" The Avian called out to him. He didn't know what she was doing, and neither did she. "It's night time… So that means there are monsters out there."

"Yeah." Rex replied. "But I think I'll be fine."

"I know this is a bit weird, seeing as we just met, but please, stay the night? It's safer indoors… Besides, it's the least I could do for you saving my life." She requested. Rex thought about it, and how he could simply beam to his ship, but this might be an excuse to actually have someone to talk to for a while, before going back to being alone. Still, he wasn't one of those people who like to take other's up on their offers.

"Alright…" Rex finally said, after thinking it over.

The Avian smiled and him, and he couldn't help but to smile back. He extended his hand. "I'm Rex. Rex Tyrrant. Pleased to meet you."

She shook it. "Celite Evelis."

Rex froze, looking at the female in a sort of terrified trance.

"Something the matter?" Celite asked him, noticing his facial expression.

"N-no, it's nothing…" Rex replied, managing a smile.