Caged Wings

Chapter Eighteen: The Belly of the Beast

The group falls, having their screams echo throughout the hole. As they fell further, four tunnel slides were seen. Serenity and Hikari fell in one. Coslotus and Sith fell into another. Pheonix and Evan fall into another one. Zero and Raven then fall into the last one.

Serenity and Hikari fly out from the tunnel and land on the ground hard. Serenity gasps as Hikari mutters, "Ow."

They both sit up. Serenity coughs, "Are you alright, Hikari?"

Hikari stands, "Yeah, I'm alright."

Serenity finally stands up as well. She looks around, "Wh-where are we?"

Hikari looks around. Everything was made of grey ancient stone. There was one big entrance way in front of them. Hikari then says, "I think this is an ancient temple of some sort."

Coslotus goes flying out from the tunnel, face first into the stone floor. He growls and raises himself up. Sith swings his sythe on the wall, causing him to slide down more easy. He then slides out and lands on his feet. Sith laughs when he sees Coslotus, "Wow....you really took a dive on that one!"

Coslotus stands and glares at Sith, growling. Sith covers his mouth, trying not to laugh. Coslotus growls, "Instead of being foolish, we should find the others."

Sith sighs, making his laughter go away. He then says as he walks on ahead, "Don't worry. We'll find them."

Pheonix lands on the ground on his stomach. Evan then goes flying into a wall, back first. He slides to the floor, growling, "God.....dammit!!!"

Evan gets up, feeling pains from the impact of hitting the wall. He gasps and cracks himself.

Pheonix gets up, trying to regain his breath. He then looks up finally, now realizing their surroundings, his eyes widened, "Woah! We're in a temple!"

Evan grunts in pain, "Big deal. I'm in a great amount of pain."

Pheonix shakes his head, "So am I."

Evan shakes his head, "Not as much as me. You didn't just bash into a wall."

Pheonix then says, "Well whining isn't gonna help. Let's go find the others."

Pheonix then walks ahead. Evan catches up, regaining his strength. He then pulls out a cigarette from his pocket, places it in his mouth, and lights it. Pheonix looks, "What're you doing?"

Evan grunts, "Smoking. What's it look like?"

Zero goes flying onto his back on the ground as his Naginata goes flying. Raven goes flying and lands right on top of Zero as her sword went flying as well. Zero groans in pain, "Oww...."

Raven gasps and raises herself up a bit, "Ooh.....I'm sorry."

Zero grunts, "It's fine. Are you okay."

Raven looks down at him and nods, "Yeah, I'm fine."

Zero smiles a bit, "I'm glad."

Raven gets up and helps Zero up. He raises up and groans in pain, "Gah...."

Raven gasps, "Are you alright??"

Zero nods, "I'm alright....."

Raven then says, "Don't move."

Zero then says, "Alright."

Raven then goes behind Zero. She then places her hands on his back. She then says a few words in a different tongue. Her hands began to glow green. The green aura then goes right into Zero's body. Zero's eyes widened as he arches himself back, "Gah!"

Raven goes in front of him, "Better?"

Zero adjusts his shoulder, "Yeah. Thanks."

Raven hugs him, "I don't like you hurt."

Zero hugs back, "Aww.....I don't like you hurt either."

Raven looks up at him and smiles. Zero looks down and smiles back at her, "Let's go find our weapons."

Raven nods, "Okay."

They then search around the room for their weapons, Raven being on one side and Zero being on the other. Raven smiles when she found Zero's Naginata. Raven calls over, "I found your Naginata."

Zero smiles, "Epic. Now all we have to do is find your sword."

He then looks down, "Which I've found now."

Raven chuckles as Zero picks up the katana. They walk over to one another, holding each other's weapon. Raven hands the Naginata to Zero, "Here you go."

Zero takes it, "Thanks."

He then hands Raven her katana, "I should teach how to use a Naginata sometime."

Raven takes her sword and smiles, "I'll teach you some real sword play in return."

Zero smiles, "Sounds epic. Now where are we?"

They both look around. Raven then says, "Looks like a temple."

Zero looks around and sees two entrances in front of them. He sighs, "Oh boy. We're lost."

Raven says, "Not yet."

She then closes her eyes and concentrates. Zero asks, "What're you doing?"

Raven then says, "I'm psychically linked to Sith, Sythe.......and Evan. I'm gonna see who's closer."

Zero's eyes widened, "Sythe's down here too?"

Raven nods, "Yeah. He's down here somewhere. He seemed to have followed one of us when we fell."

Zero nods, "Ah. Do you know who's closer now?"

Raven opens her eyes. She smiles, "Sythe and Evan are closer."

She then points at the left entrance, "That way."

Zero then says, "Okay. You're the leader. Lead the way."

Raven smiles as she walks into the entrance with Zero by her side.

Serenity and Hikari keep walking. Serenity sighs, "We don't even know where we're going."

Hikari smiles, "I do."

Serenity looks to her, "You do?"

Hikari nods, "Yup. I'm following the nearest aura of our group."

Serenity asks, "Whose?"

Hikari smiles, "Sith's and Coslotus'."

Serenity smiles, "We're close?"

Hikari says, "Not...really. But they're the closest."

Serenity sighs, "Well....at least it's better than nothing."

They stop in their tracks as they heard a growl up ahead in the darkness. The girls both gasp and stop. Up ahead.....a pair of big, glowing red eyes could be seen. Serenity whispers, "Wh-what is that?"

Hikari shakes, "I don't know. Something big?"

Serenity sighs, "Gee....that helps."

A pair of white sharp teeth could be seen. It then steps out and roars. The girls scream and begin to run back the other way as the big creature ran from the darkness and began to chase them.

Sith and Coslotus keep walking. Coslotus then says, "You don't know where we're going do you?"

Sith shakes his head, "Nope. Not a clue."

Coslotus sighs, "Aren't you linked to Raven?"

Sith nods, "Yeah."

Coslotus sighs in frustration, "You can use that to find her."

Sith laughs, "Oh yeah. Right."

Sith then stops and closes his eyes to concentrate. He then opens them, "Hey....Sythe's here too."

Coslotus raises an eyebrow, "So?"

Sith laughs, "He knows people's scent. He can help us. Besides, he's the closest."

Coslotus sighs, "Fine."

They then walk on ahead, with Sith leading the way. They stop and here a thumping noise. It came from behind them. They both turn around to look. Both of their eyes widened when they saw a giant Cerberus standing there. It growled at them, with all three jaws drooling for hunger.

Pheonix and Evan walk on ahead. Evan then takes a drag from his cigarette, feeling his pains going down. Pheonix shakes his head. He then walks ahead of Evan.

Evan shrugs, "What?"

Pheonix then says, "Sorry....I don't want to breathe in your smoke."

Evan shakes his head, "Fine."

He then puts it out by rubbing it against the wall. He then throws it away. Pheonix stops. Evan goes up to him, "What is it?"

Pheonix then says, "Something's in here."

Evan then smells the air, "You're right."

Pheonix then says, "Brace yourself."

Evan waves his hand, "Relax."

Pheonix's eyes widened, "Why?"

He then walks on ahead. Something then jumps at Evan. It then licks the side of his face. Evan chuckles. Pheonix runs to see it was a giant cybertooth tiger. Evan smiles, "See? It's only Sythe."

Pheonix then said, "Ooh! That's sudden."

Sythe then jumps onto all fours off of Evan and nudges his head. Evan then says, "Sythe wants us to follow him."

Pheonix smiles, "He can lead us to the others."

Evan nods, "Exactly!"

Sythe then runs on ahead. Evan and Pheonix follow. Sythe stops and growls. Evan sniffs the air. He shouts, "Get back!!"

They all jump back as two big creatures land right in front of them. They each had two heads and armour, holding a club. Pheonix growls, "Twin Haidens!!!"

Evan looks to Pheonix, "What the hell are those?!"

Pheonix then says, "They're twin headed creatures that guard temples and have massive strength! Worse than a Cyclops and Minotaur combined!!!"

Evan mutters sarcastically, "Great."

Raven and Zero keep going. They enter into a giant chamber with a waterfall. It was gorgeous. Ahead of the two was a fairly large bridge. At the bottom, a pool that the waterfall was pouring into could be seen. Raven smiles, "Wow."

Zero nods, "Yeah."

They then start to walk on the bridge. The two then heard a giant hiss. They both look at one another. Zero asks, "What the hell was that?"

Raven shrugs, "I dunno."

They then heard a big crashing sound. They look to see the wall near the side of the bridge was broken. Red eyes was glowing at them, LOTS of them. Raven and Zero back up a bit, gripping their weapons. The hissing sound was coming from whatever creature lerked within the hole in the wall.

Hikari and Serenity keep running and screaming. They were being chased by a giant T-Rex. Serenity gasps as she turns around and shoots fire at it. The fire landed in the T-Rex's eyes. It roars in pain and shakes his head over and over again.

Hikari turns and shouts again, "KIKI!!!"

Her broomstick once again appears. She runs at the T-Rex and begins to hit it over and over again. Serenity smiles and runs to the other side of the Rex. She then shoots fire at it. She then lights her whole body on fire, making her attack stronger.

Hikari then mutters, "I look at you and I think curse.........make my next hit hurt even worse!!"

She then hits the Rex in the face. It goes flying back with great force right into a wall. It left a gigantic hole. Hikari smiles, "There's our way!"

Serenity's fire resides. They both smile at one another for their teamwork. They then run into the hole in the wall, getting closer to their team members.

Sith and Coslotus smirk at one another as the Cerberus was getting ready to attack them. Coslotus then jumps forward and lands on the middle head. It tries to shake him off, but couldn't. Sith goes to swing his sythe, when two more came running at him. Sith jumps back, "Woah!"

He then runs and lets the other two Cerberus chase him. He then runs up a wall and backflips onto one of their backs. He then stabs the middle head with his sythe. Sith smirks as the creature falls dead instantly.

Coslotus then drains a Cerberus' energy. It whines in pain. Coslotus smirks, "Yes! Give me your energy!!!"

Sith then drains his kill's powers through his sythe. He then looks to the last one coldly and smirks evily. He then jumps with a swing. He cuts it in half and absorbs it's soul. Sith lands on his feet and smirks as Coslotus drains every last drop of energy, finally killing the Cerberus. The two smirk at one another evily. They then start heading to their next destination.

Evan and Pheonix then run from the two Haidens. Sythe then attacks one of them. He then electracutes it, weakening it. Pheonix then runs at the Haiden and conjuers up fire and ice in both hands. He then blasts it at the Haiden and makes it explode.

The other Haiden was chasing Evan. He jumps, "Shit!"

It swings it's club at him. Evan barely dodges. His big sword appears. He blocks the next hit and pushes it back. Evan then swings his sword, but misses. He shouts, "FUCK!!"

The Haiden laughs and swings at him again, only this time he knocks Evan's sword from his hands. Evan's sight began to blurr, he couldn't see straight, "Wh-what the-??"

Sythe then jumps on the Haiden's back, biting it. The Haiden then throws Sythe back. As Pheonix went to attack, a voice was heard, "SOUL WEAVER!!!"

A big blade of wind came crashing through a wall and hits the Haiden dead on, cutting it in half with blood splattering. Pheonix looks to see Sith and Coslotus standing there.

A long head snaps out from the wall and almost hits Raven. She jumps to the side, "GAH!!"

Zero's eyes widened, "What the fuck is that??!!"

As Raven was about to get hit, she jumps and yells, "Hydra!!!"

The thing finally came out from the wall. This thing had a least ten snake heads. Zero dodges as they attack, "Woah!!"

Half of the heads snap into Zero's direction. Zero jumps and kicks them all. They snap up in the air. Zero then swings his Naginata and cuts one of their heads off.

Raven then runs and swings her sword, cutting a few heads off. The heads then grew back with twice the number. Zero's eyes widened, "You didn't say they could do that!!"

Raven's eyes widened, "I forgot they could do that!"

They both jump away from the Hydra's attacks, "Nice time to forget!!!"

Raven shouts, "Oh shut up!!"

They both jump off the bridge, nearly dodging the Hydra's last attack. It then smashes the bridge instead, destroying it. Zero and Raven then land into the pool of water.

The Hydra then looks down. Zero and Raven shout at the same time, "Shit!!!"

They both dive under water to avoid the Hydra's attack. Raven drops her sword. As Raven went to get it, a Hydra's head goes in front of her. Her eyes widened as she tries to swim to the top. Zero then stabs it in the center of the head with his Naginata, saving Raven.

They both swim to the surface. They both gasp for breath. Zero then asks, "Any ideas??"

Raven nods, "I've got one."

The Hydra then attacks with all of it's heads. Raven and Zero jump back high into the air. They land on the shore. Raven then asks, "You know any lightning spells?"

Zero replies, "One."

Raven says firmly, "Use it!!"

They both begin to form lightning in their hands. They then place their hands together, making the attack bigger. The Hydra sees and charges at them, with all of it's mouths open. They both scream and shoot their attack at the Hydra, causing it to explode. Blood and guts flew everywhere. Zero and Raven smile. They look at one another. Zero laughs, "You're drenched."

Raven laughs, "So are you."

Raven then gets her sword back and they begin to head in the direction where the others were.