Hello people of FanFiction and welcome back to chapter 9 of Gregor and the War of the Myriapods! So it turns out that my story now has 740 views! Guess how many of them I got yesterday? Well if you guessed 123 then you would be correct! A whopping 123 views in 1 day? ' insane! Well its only going up form here, so keep it up guys, I do my part you do yours right? So, back to the story, I still have mostly no clue what this chapter will be about, so I'm shooting the gun blind again aren't I? I know what I'm doing for the beginning for this chapter, but for the most part the middle and end are a giant blur, though I can get an outline of what it might be, though I usually change the chapter a lot from what it was suppose to be, like in the story, when Gregor went to the underland, he went back a chapter late! Well please give me any and all ideas you have for this story, because I still have only a vague idea how the rest of it will go, though I know how most of the end will go. Okay, enough of my endless rambling and onto the story. As usual all responses are encouraged and appreciated, so tell me whats in your head! See you guys later!

Bye bye peeps,

-Tytonic

Disclaimer: I don't own any of The Underland Chronicles, only the characters I make up and the plot itself.

Gregor and the War of the Myriapods

Chapter 9: Training

I saw a leather looking book with the picture of me and Gregor dancing on the cover of it, and below the picture I saw something written. "This is were I will think of you". I quickly opened the book and could see through out the pages the pictures of me and Gregor in the museum together secured to the page by some smooth clear substance. It was sort of like flexible glass that couldn't shatter.

What I assumed to be hours I looked through the book over and over again. The pages I always stayed on for the longest was the final page. It had 4 simple words written on it. Only 4 simple words. But these 4 words were what I needed to hear the most.

"I still love you"

The next morning. . .

Luxa had had one of her first decent night sleeps in years, though it was still pretty crappy on a regular persons standard. She actually had a dream, not a nightmare or nothing at all, though once again, it wasn't very nice. It was just a wide open area, with random creatures of the underland wandering around. Luxa was also wandering, she seemed to be looking for somebody, though she didn't know who, but she still couldn't find that somebody. When she had awoken, she laid in bed for sometime. Eventually, she groggily slid out of bed and went to her dresser. She picked out some standard cloths, though compared to the civilians they were very nice cloths. She then groggily dragged herself through the doorway, out of her bedroom and into her living room. She noticed 2 things that were out of place. The first was that unlike any other day, there was a tray of food sitting on the table in the middle of the room. The second was the 11 year old boy laying on the couch reading a decent sized book, maybe 800 pages or so, and he was awkwardly wearing a clunky helmet on his head.

"Hazard, why are you wearing that ridiculous thing? What purpose does it serve?" Asked Luxa in great confusion.

"Well I was only preparing for a possible airborne book, I don't want to get hit in the head, again, it hurt enough the first time!" Said Hazard, extreme irritation in his voice.

"Oh that, yes, sorry about that, but I don't think I will be throwing anymore items at you, at least not for now" Responded Luxa, now in a surprisingly good mood (she just remembered the scrapbook, though its probably tangled up in her blankets somewhere).

"Well I can see your in a good mood today, and I think I can guess why, it's whatever was in that box right? Well Gregor had me give it to you, since the guards wouldn't let him in" Responded Hazard.

"Oh, and by the way, since nobody was brave enough to wake you up, you missed luncheon, so they had food made, and put on the table here, as you can see" Said Hazard.

Oh great, she missed what might be one of her only chances to see Gregor today. If she eat fast, she might have enough time to get down to the arena and see him before training is over.

"So, how long ago did training start, Hazard?" Asked Luxa.

"Yeah, well I figured you would say that, and yes, if you hurry you might have time to see him, might" Responded Hazard.

"Thanks Hazard, see you later" Said Luxa.

"Wait, aren't you gonna eat? You didn't eat at all yesterday, you need something!" Said Hazard.

Luxa walked over to the table and took a piece of underland bread with some underland butter on it. She literally jammed it in her mouth and swallowed, she then took a swig of water, and jogged out of the door. She continued to jog for a few minutes until she came across the council room. Remembering her council meeting she had this morning, she took a minute break to slow her rapid breathing, once her breathing was normal again, she regained her posture and strolled on into the council room.

"Oh, very nice of you to grace us with your presence my queen, we were starting to think that you wouldn't show" Said one of the council members.

"Well I seemed to have slept in a bit, but nonetheless I am here now, so may we proceed with the meeting?" Asked Luxa, going from silly 15 year old to a regal queen in an instant.

"Very well, so the matter we have gathered to discuss is the subject of our new enemy. We have been researching the body brought in from your Highness's trip into the uncharted lands, and we have discovered many different weaknesses and strong points in their makeup" Said another council member.

Luxa really hated these council members, but she had to admit, they really did help sometimes, and usually they did more harm then good, but this wasn't one of those times, at least Luxa didn't think so.

"Very good to hear, now may we hear these facts?"Asked Luxa.

"Indeed. The main weakness we have discovered is very troubling. It seems that there is only one weakness, and that is the spot around the neck, were the head joins the body, the armor is much thinner there, thus allowing us to cut through it. The problem is that not only is it a very small area, but the amount of force required to cut through the armor here is enormous, and our current weapons will have enough strength to cut through, but it seems that it will shatter the sword, and nothing less. Some of the worse news is that they can walk on any surface, due to their many legs. Another seems the be that their shell, is so strong that at any spot, save the neck, it can only be scratched. The shell is much stronger then iron. Some more good news on this matter seems to be that the new metal that Ripred has discovered, steel, has been successfully created, and as you requested we have the first sword of its kind here" Said another council member.

The council member then proceeded to raise his hand in a signal, presumably signaling the sword to be delivered to Luxa's side. Out of another door Mareth then proceeded over to Luxa, holding a sword, in a very nice decorated sheath.

"Your majesty, your sword" Said Mareth as he bowed down to present it to Luxa. Both him and Luxa knew that they were friends, and that Mareth didn't need to treat Luxa like this, but in front of the council he really didn't have a choice, he could be severely punished, or tossed in jail fi he didn't treat her as queen, but of coarse in a few weeks once Luxa was full queen, she would be able to counteract that punishment.

Luxa proceeded to take the sword out of his hands. She then slid it from its sheath. It was a surprisingly light, very very sharp, and much stronger sword then any other sword she had ever used. She swung it around a few times, and found it was much nicer to use then another she had ever used.

"Thank you, Mareth, you may go" Said Luxa.

"The thanks is mine" Said Mareth as he stood up and left the room.

"So, continuing on with our meeting, this creature has come to be named a Myriapod, its has many legs, 2 sharp claws on the end of its tail, extremely tough armor, and its jaws are much like the cutter's, but unlike the cutter's, they have enough poison in their fangs to kill around 100 men, with one drop. They have enough leg strength to jab into the toughest rock, meaning they would be able to walk up the palace walls with ease. From information gathered, and witnesses account, it could take anywhere from around 100 to 200 men to take out one, but of coarse Ripred, and we suspect the warrior, can take out many with ease" Said one of the council members.

Luxa thought about this for a few moments, and realized that if they were to beat this foe, they would need a force much stronger then they currently had. All of the underland was once again in danger.

The meeting went on for around another 20 minutes, though it was mostly hopeless arguing and yelling at each other about what to do about the new threat rising in the uncharted lands. Luxa made a few points saying that they would need to make new weapons in order to beat this new enemy, and that the new metal, steel, alone wouldn't be enough to beat them. Luxa ended the meeting by saying they all needed time to think, so they should reschedule the meeting for another day.

By this time Luxa realized that training only had around 10 minutes left, so even though she wouldn't have time to actually train she would still be able to see Gregor for a short while. She was already in casual clothing, and she didn't have enough time to train so she didn't need to change into training cloths, so she set off strait to highhall. When she got there, she let out a loud earsplitting whistle, and jumped as high into the air as she possibly could. When she came back down she landed on the back of a golden bat. Luxa and Aurora greeted each other and set off to the arena. Luxa knew it would take a few minutes to get there, probably around 6-8 minutes. Luxa knew that if she got there, she would be there at the last second, and might actually miss Gregor.

Once Luxa actually got to the arena, everybody was finishing up and cleaning up, except Gregor and Ripred. Zoey and Alex, Gregor's 2 overland friends, were standing on the side watching Gregor and Ripred go at it in a spar. Luxa didn't want to interrupt the fight so she found her way to a seat in the stands and started to watch the fight.

Gregor seemed to be much stronger and better at fighting than he had the previous day, but Luxa figured that was because yesterday was probably the first time in 4 years he has held a sword, and now today he has gotten used to it once more. Gregor and Ripred were really going at it, it was so unbelievably fast that Luxa could barley make out what was happening. If this fight was between anybody except Gregor and Ripred, the foe would have been dead within the first second of fighting. The fight went on for how knows how long, it was at least another 30 minutes and the 2 were still going at it, and showing no sign of tiering either. Any other person would have dropped to the ground in exhaustion at this point.

The fight showed no sign of letting up when Gregor caught a sight of Luxa. Their eyes met, and at that moment, Ripred took advantage of Gregor hesitation and socked Gregor in the side of the head, knocking him out cold, and the limb body of the great warrior fell to the floor, motionless.

Gregor's Point of View

"Okay, goodnight Hazard" Said Gregor as he started to walk away, back to his room.

"Ok goodnight" Responded Hazard as he disappeared into Luxa's room.

Gregor walked for about 5 minutes until he found his room, when he wen in he slipped on some pajamas and fell onto his bed. He fell asleep the moment his head hit the pillow.

The Next Morning. . .

Gregor awoke the next morning having a decent night of sleep, and an actual dream, crappy, but yet still a real dream. Gregor was in a large open field with amazing green grass. It was a slightly hilly and a nice cool temperature with a slight breeze. He was walking, just walking, and nothing else. He could swear he heard a familiar voice calling out to him in the breeze, but yet he could pinpoint were it was coming from. He couldn't put his figure on who's voice it was either, though either way it was calling out to him, and he knew he had to find were it was.

Gregor's eyes snapped open to Alex shaking him rapidly.

"Gregor! Gregor wake up, come on we got training to go to, but first Breakfast" Yelled Alex right into Gregor's face.

"Okay okay, I'm. Any time to wash up before breakfast?" Asked Gregor.

"Yeah, they wont start without us, so hurry up" Said Alex.

Alex then turned around and left the room, leaving a sleepy warrior to lay on the bed and roll around a couple of times before dragging himself to the washrooms.

Gregor got down to the washroom, still in his pajamas. He got a few weird looks, but nobody dared to question the warrior and his pajama ways. By the time he got down to he washroom he was fully awake and ready to face an army. He slid out of his pajamas and left them on the bench in the center of the washroom, next to Alex's stuff. Gregor slid down into the warm steamy water of one of the baths.

"Hey Alex hows it going?" Called out Gregor.

"Good, though I am wondering what we are going to do in training, I'm assuming you already know, can you brief me on it?" Called Alex back from another bath somewhere to Gregor's right.

"Yes I can, seeing as to the fact that you have never held a sword, I'm assuming that they will run you through the basics of fighting. Basic attacks and blocks, stuff that everybody has to know. Once your done that, they will probably have you try the blood balls, though you don't have to, I'm gonna force you to anyway, from what I have heard I'm the only one to ever hit all 15 of the balls. They line up 3 cannons facing you, each filled with 5 golf ball sized balls of red liquid. They will shoot all of the balls at you and you have to see how many you can hit. For people just starting, like you, they don't expect very many, maybe 2-3" Explained Gregor.

"Well how many did you hit your first time?" Asked Alex.

"Well I'm a rager, so I hit all 15 my first time, though I freaked out over it, I hate violence, and I only use it when necessary" Said Gregor.

"Okay then. So what up with you and Zoey? I know your not into her like she is into you, but she seems to be all over you since we got here, I mean more then usual, I also noticed you staring at that girl, is there any chance you have like a crush on her? Dude you should go after it" Said Alex.

"Well I have no clue about Zoey, I have noticed it to, I guess she's really trying to make a move on me, before anything bad happens. As to that girl, her name is Luxa, and as you know she's queen, so I couldn't be with her anyway, anybody who weds her will become king. Before you say it, she's almost 16, so she will be forced to wed on her birthday, whether she likes the man or not. As to do I like her, suppose I should tell you know, I can't keep it in forever. Yes I like her, she is the girl who I had my first kiss with, though that was 4 years ago, and I don't know how she feels anymore" Said Gregor, doing a fair job of hiding the emotion in his voice.

"Well I don't even know what to say to that, just go for it, what can you loose here? It might be a hopeless attempt, but what else will you do? Its not like she will hate you, you have saved her life so many times, so there is no way she will hold it against you" Said Alex.

"Yes, I suppose your right, but I have yet to really talk to her, and with her schedule, I might never get the chance to talk to her, and nothing you say will keep me from being nervous" Said Gregor

"Yes, well good luck with that, so I'm done here, let's go to breakfast now, I'm starving" Said Alex.

Gregor and Alex both got out of the baths and got dressed in the new cloths that they found waiting for them. As they were leaving the room Gregor broke the silence.

"Wait Alex, here, you should see this" Said Gregor as he handed a copy of his picture over to Alex (He had put the original into the scrap book).

"Holy crap, this is the happiest I've ever seen you, you are also 12, so I'm assuming you really missed this place" Said Alex as he handed the picture back to Gregor.

"More then you can ever imagine" Said Gregor as they both made there way over to the dinning room.

Once they both got there, like the previous day, they saw everybody, accept Luxa who was absent once again, sitting around the table waiting. Gregor took his usual seat in-between Alex and Zoey. Everybody was about halfway done eating when Gregor broke the awkward silence.

"So, why is Luxa missing again? Still in her room I assume?" Asked Gregor, he noticed a very small smile creep up onto Alex's face.

"Well she was in a very deep sleep, and frankly due to her behavior last night nobody was brave enough to wake her, not even Ripred, and that is truly saying something" Responded Vikus.

"Well if Ripred wont, there is no way I want to, that is if I want to live" Said Gregor.

"Personally I believe that you have the greatest chance of not getting killed waking her, but I fully understand your fear on the matter. Last time I tried to wake her, I had a bump from a book on my forehead for a week" Said Vikus.

Once everybody was done eating Vikus announced that it was time for training. Every body proceeded over to highhall, were they all mounted up on fliers and began the flight over to the arena for training.

Once they all landed, they all thanked their bats as the bats flew away, and proceeded over to the weapons rack. Gregor chose a decent length sword with good balance and good weight. Alex, having never used a sword before, chose a sword most similar to Gregor's sword. Finally Zoey, having never used a weapon before either, chose to take a bow with some arrows, and went over to another girl for archery training.

"Overlander's!" Called a man as he walked over to Alex and Gregor.

"You two will be training with me, though warrior, I assume you surpass me by a great amount, but we shall see, and by the way, my name is Warrick" Said Warrick.

Warrick then proceeded to teach the basics to Alex, which were very simple, and he didn't do to bad at. They did this while Gregor sat to the side giving Alex tips on what to do.

"So, you seem to have the basics down. George! Come over here please. You will be Alex's opponent in a spar, please show him how to spar first, then fight each other. Warrior, you will be my opponent in a spar" Said Warrick as he position himself for a spar.

Gregor and Warrick stood facing each other as they began to circle, looking for an opening. When Warrick started to approach Gregor, Gregor quickly ducked under a blow coming from the left, and kicked Warrick's feet out from underneath him. Warrick was back p to his feet in an instant, but using speed only a rager can muster up Gregor was behind him with a sword to the back of his neck before he even had his hands back onto the ground to push himself back up.

"Well, I knew you were good, but I though I could last at least a little bit longer then that. Wow, and I'm in the top 10 fighters of Regalia, but then again, now that you beat Ripred your number 1 and he is number 2, while I'm at number 9" Said Warrick in disappointment.

"Wait, Regalia has a top 10 fighters list? Since when?" Asked Gregor.

"Well I would say it was about 5 months after you left the underland, Ripred had the idea. To determine the first top 10, we had 10 separate competitions. The 10 winners then went into spars against each other. Ripred won by miles against Hayden, Queen Luxa's to-be fiancé. Most people have seen Hayden since, his pride was so destroyed when he lost that he went into intense training. He faced off against Ripred once again, and actually almost won, though he still had no chance. Since then he has improved even more, though he recently got an injury that he is in the process of healing from. From what I hear I was a very bad wound, and he almost died from it, if it weren't for dirt shoved in his wound, he would have bled to death" Said Warrick, not noticing Gregor flinch when he said the Hayden was Luxa's fiancé.

"Well then I guess I am number 1 on the list, due to the fact that I beat Ripred, though if he beats me I will become number 2 I presume right?" Asked Gregor.

"Yes indeed it is so, though I believe in around a month they will be hosting a new contest to decide a new top 10. The current top 10 will be allowed to enter" Said Warrick.

"Well I'm gonna enter that, though I have a feeling if I want to keep a good reputation as warrior I have to enter" Said Gregor.

Warrick had started to open his mouth when somebody called out loudly that blood balls were about to begin. 3 cannons were being wheeled out into the middle of the arena. It took about 20 minutes but once everybody save Gregor and Alex were done, the highest anybody had gotten was Warrick with a respectable 8 balls hit.

When Gregor forced Alex out to the cannons he argued, but with some encouragement from the other people training he went out and began. It was quick, but after it ended 4 split balls lay on the ground covered with red liquid.

"Well that was amazing for a first time!" Said Gregor as he walked up to Alex.

"Thanks, I feel great about it myself. Now for you to go" Said Alex.

"Okay got it. Hey, can anybody get me 3 more cannons out here?" Shouted Gregor.

Everybody looked shocked, but knowing he is the warrior, they dragged 3 more out, and made a circle of cannons, with Gregor in the middle of it.

When the cannons finally started to shoot blood balls out at Gregor, the rage took over. He could now fully control the rager, though he could use some practice. When the rager took over he controlled it and hit all 30 balls coming strait at him. Once he had finished everybody stared at him, shocked, but then began to clap and cheer for him.

"Holy crap dude, I know you the warrior and all, but you hit 30 while I only hit 4!" Said Alex, shocked.

"Well you know, I didn't expect to hit all 30, though I knew I would hit a lot of them" said Gregor, not that shocked but still slightly surprised.

With that everybody settled down and started to clean up. Since Gregor knew where nothing went he just sat down on a bench and watched the clean up. He and Alex chatted for a few minutes until Ripred strolled into the arena.

"Boy! Get over here, I want a rematch" Shouted Ripred from across the arena.

Everybody froze at this and turned towards the 2 rager's preparing for battle. There were no words exchanged, but the 2 just started to circle, looking for an opening. It began so unbelievably fast that nobody knew what truly happened in the battle. It was all a blur, the 2 strongest forces in the underland going head to head once again. After around 5 minutes everybody began to clean up again, avoiding Ripred and Gregor, so they didn't get hit by a stray swing.

Once everybody was finished cleaning up, only Gregor, Ripred, Alex, and Zoey were left in the arena. The battle went on for around another 20 minutes or so, neither of the rager's showing any sign of letting up or tiring. Gregor was in full force, and could feel Ripred slowly giving in when, our or the corner of his eye, he saw Luxa watching him. They held each others gaze for a moment before Gregor felt a sharp pain in the side of his head. He held Luxa's gaze for another moment before he fell to the ground. Then suddenly, everything went black.

So tell me what you guys think about this chapter, it's by far the longest chapter I have made yet. It's kind of like 2 chapters in one, though I think it just makes the whole thing much better then if it was only 1 persons point of view. I think it turned out great, much better then I assumed it would. I didn't even have any clue what would go on in this chapter, it just kind of flowed out of my head and into the story. Well since I have the TV on in the background, it took me like 8 hours to finish this chapter, mostly because old movie that I have not seen for years like The Incredibles and Robots came on, so I had to watch them. I know they are kid movies, but I haven't seen them for so long, so how could I resist? I mean I could even remember some of the biggest details on it all. So as usual all responses are encourages and appreciated, so give me your ideas and thoughts! See you guys later!

R&R people,

-Tytonic

*CLICKCLICKCLICK*

*POOF*

Tytonic- Okay, Ripred the cage if for Gregor not you, so don't take it personally, I know you could break out if you tried.

Ripred- For the boy? Well somebody seems afraid.

Tytonic- well yeah, he could kill me faster then I could yell for help, and he seems to get mad at me a lot, so I don't want to take any chances.

Ripred- Well good luck there, I doubt the cage will work forever though.

Tytonic- Yeah, thanks

Gregor- Well, why did you have to make Ripred Knock me out? Really? I would have won if you didn't do that!

Tytonic- Well you saw Luxa, you stared at her, that's your mistake, I can only make you do things that you would really do, so you would have gotten distracted anyway.

Gregor- I hate logic.

Tytonic- Well follow it, don't try to defy it, and you might be able to control your rager better.

Ripred- Well that's a good tip I never though of.

Tytonic- True, but you never really give many tips anyway, so it doesn't matter if you thought of it or not, I said it first.

Ripred- True, now I'm starving, put me back in with a cart of shrimp and cream sauce before I actually break out of the cage.

Tytonic- Got it, see you later.

*Ripred snorts*

*CLICKCLICKCLICK*

*POOF*

Tytonic- That went well.

See you guys later,

-Tytonic