Chapter 14 – Savage Lands

After the sun finally began to rise up and most of the group had already woken up and began packing up to go, the only job left to do was to wake up any of the still-sleeping members.

"Hey G," Nyx said, prodding the sleeping mashup with her hoof. "Wakey-wakey."

However the only response Nyx got out of the Living Genre were a few drowsy mumbles.

"Mnh… No Adelaide, it's forbidden," he mumbled, a goofy grin spreading across his face as he clearly enjoyed his dream.

Rolling her eyes upon seeing this, Nyx felt no guilt in giving G a little zap with some magic, within a matter of seconds an electric aura shot out of Nyx's horn and gave G the little jolt he needed to get shot wide awake.

"Ahh! I'm up! I'm up!" he yelped, his cheek still stinging a little. "You know, you could have found a better way to wake me."

"I know," Nyx replied playfully. "But none of them would have been as fun."

G would have retorted but, Nyx had already walked away to help Edward and Laura put the rest of the supplies back into the van. After a moment of silence, G couldn't help but smirk.

"I think I might be rubbing off on her," he commented.

#

Two hours later, the van was back on the road, or at least what G had described as the worst kind of substitute for a road, for the past half-hour the van had been forced to travel on a series of stones along the side of a small river in the centre of a gorge, nobody knew why they were traveling this way but according to G it was because the smell was leading them along this path. Needless to say, the ride wasn't making they're travel sickness any easier.

"How're you guys doing back there?" G asked as he continued to drive.

"Could be better," Lug said sarcastically. "How much longer did you say we had to be on the road again?"

"Not long now," G said, a small smile etched across his face. "Judging from the smell in the air, I'd say we should be finding our first helpless soul any time now. So make sure to keep an eye on…"

Suddenly G was cut off mid-sentence by a loud bang, which was quickly followed by the van shaking violently as it tilted slightly to the left, forcing Goggles to slam on the break. After a near miss of nearly swerving into the river, the Van finally stopped, much to everyone's relief.

"What the Sam-hell was that!?" Mossy exclaimed.

"Everyone stay in the van," G quickly instructed before opening the driver's door and jumping out.

Looking over the van for any signs of damage, G was then met with a terrible sight in the form of a flat front left tire, and worse still, not only was it flat but the rubber had been torn to shreds as though it were ravaged by something.

"Oh that's just great!" G snapped angrily. "Please tell me there's another tire in the back!"

At those words, Goggles quickly jumped away from the peddles, hopped in back and quickly proceeded to help everyone to search for any spare tires. After a few minutes of searching, G got his answer.

"Nothing!" Goggles called out, much to G's dismay. "The only thing we could find are more empty Whisky bottles.

"Peachy!" G reported sarcastically. "Guess that's what I get for stealing a van belonging to a teenage drunk."

"Can't you fix it with your magic?" Nyx asked curiously, looking at G through the window. "Like you did with that machine back at Edward's place.

"I'm not THAT good, kid," G answered, much to everyone's surprise. "My kind of magic only works on complex machinery not standard engine mechanics. If I tried doing something like that of this van, not only would I probably collapse from using such magic, but i'd probably end up turning it into some kind of…"

However once again G found himself stopping in mid-sentence, only this time by his own choice as some new aroma reached his nostrils, an aroma that didn't seem right.

"What is it?" Edward asked curiously.

"I smell something… familiar," G replied, his eyes narrowing as the scent quickly became clearer to him. "Something dangerous, something… feral."

It was then that G took another look at the damaged wheel of the van, upon close inspection he noticed something sharp sticking out the shredded piece of rubber. Pulling the object out, G saw that it wasn't a stone but rather a sharp, jagged, black blade, something that clearly wasn't left on the road by accident… someone had deliberately tried to sabotage the van by throwing a dagger at its wheels, and whoever it was knew exactly where to throw the blade. Suddenly, G heard a loud heavy breathing from behind him, along with some garbled snarling, nervously turning his head over his shoulder, G only saw a brief glimpse of the horror behind him before it launched itself at him from behind a rock.

"Aaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!" he screamed as he struggled to fight the hideous creature thrashing it's fists at him and biting him in the tail. "Get this thing off me!"

It didn't take more than a few seconds for the rest of the group to respond to G's pleas for help and come to his aid. Taking out his collapsible staff out of his vest pocket and opening it up, Goggles made quick work of the creature and delivered a powerful shock with its Taser tip, within moments the creature was zapped with a 20,000 volts of electricity and was render unconscious, allowing G to push it off himself.

"G, are you okay?" Edward asked concernedly.

"I'll live," G grumbled. "Looking down at the bite-marks in his tail. "Miserable little…"

After the entail shock had passed, G and the rest of the group finally managed to get a good look at his attacker. What they saw looked like a teenage human boy only much more grotesque, his clothes consisting of a green hoody and blue jeans were all ragged and filthy, he wore no shoes to reveal a pair of three-toed feet, not only that but his skin was also murky green skin patterned with a few liver spots, clawed fingers, dishevelled teeth, and a bald head with but only a few long strands of hair left, if anything this creature looked like it been through hell and back. However the worst thing G noticed about this creature was the fact that he wasn't like anything that came locally in these lands, far from it.

"What is that thing?" Laura asked, cringing at the mere sight of the creature.

"THAT is who we came for," G said bluntly. "His name his Ezekiel, and he's the result of what happens when you put sadists in charge of things."

After a few brief moments of silence to take all the new information in, everyone soon had the same response.

"WHAT!?" everyone exclaimed simultaneously.

"THAT is what we were looking for!?" Lug asked, not believing a word of it.

"Sweet Celestia, what the heck happened to this thing!?" Goggles added.

"This 'thing' as you called him used to be human," G retorted. "Unfortunately the poor boy went feral after stowing away in a cargo hold for several weeks back in his home realm. The kid must have been savaging for food around this area like an animal ever since he got here."

"That's just horrible," Laura gasped, knowing full-well what it was like when an intelligent species goes feral.

"What are we going to do with him?" Edward asked, much to everyone's concern.

After staring down at Ezekiel unconscious form in silence for a few moments, a series of thoughts entered his mind, granted he knew that the whole reason he and the group came here was to find the other lost characters, but in all honesty he never considered what to do if they ever came across the dangerous ones. In this case, the group should consider themselves lucky since Ezekiel isn't that big of a threat compare to most villains in the multiverse, but still G had to think about the possibility of running into someone far worse on this journey. Either way, he knew that they couldn't just leave the poor creature here, it would be too cruel a fate even for him.

"We need to bind him so he doesn't escape," G finally said. "Goggles, see if you can find a rope or something in the van, maybe we can tie him to the roof.

However that statement only earned G several gasps of shock.

"NO WAY!" Lug exclaimed. "You're not seriously expecting to bring him with us!?"

"He's right G," Goggles added. "I wouldn't feel safe with this guy hanging around."

But protests aside, there WERE a few people in the group that were on G's side in this argument.

"We can't just leave him!" Nyx protested. "He's a victim in all of this just like we are!"

"He tried to run us off the road!" Mossy retorted.

"Yeah, but m… maybe he didn't know any better," Laura pointed out nervously, earning herself a glare.

"Yeah, it's like G said, the poor guy is feral, maybe he thought we were food," Nyx added.

"Child, please the grown-ups are talking," Lug scolded, earning himself a few gasps.

"Hey don't talk to her like that!" Goggles snapped.

Soon enough the whole group became involved with a severely heated argument, some more so than others since neither Edward nor Laura spoke much. However little did everyone realise that they had spent so much time arguing that Ezekiel had slowly began to regain consciousness… and needless to say he was ticked. While everyone else was distracted the feral creature leaped up and once again tackled G to the ground, much to everyone's surprise, however this time instead of thrashing G, Ezekiel simply used his body like a springboard and jumped onto the roof of the van, triumphantly roaring like a wild animal.

"What the hell!?" G gasped, the others joining him in his startled state.

At those words, Ezekiel started jumping up and down and pounding his chest like a gorilla, leading everyone to think that he was even more insane than they first thought. At first G tried to jump onto the van and tackle him to the ground, however the feral beast known as Ezekiel spat several green blobs at his feet, which to everyone's surprise started eating away and the rocks they were standing on.

"The lad spits acid!?" Spud exclaimed, holding onto Mossy in fear.

Upon seeing everyone cringe in fear, Ezekiel laughed manically, however that was only the tip of the iceberg of trouble that was about to come. Placing two fingers to his lips, Ezekiel released a loud, high-pitched whistle that echoed throughout the entire gorge, at first nobody knew why he did such a thing, but then that was when they felt the rumble beneath their feet, which was quickly followed by several howls and bestial snarls.

"What is that?" Nyx asked fearfully.

As soon as the question was asked, the answer literally came rushing down the walls of the gorge. Looking around, everyone's jaws dropped in fear upon seeing the new enemies quickly beginning to swarm, hideous enemies that were riding the same kind of beasts that had attacked them yesterday.

"A… are those the kind of people you were talking about?" Laura stuttered terrifyingly.

"Orcs!" G replied with a fearful nod. "As vicious as they are ugly, let them catch you and you're dead. So trust me when I say… RUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUNNNNNNNN!"

Then with a loud scream of terror, the group abandoned the damaged van, and started running for their lives further down the gorge as a series of arrows narrowly missed them and pierced the side of the van, with Ezekiel jumping around and cheering inanely with a goofy smile upon his face, despite the obvious danger for some reason he seemed to be enjoying it. Peeking a gaze over his shoulder, G quickly looked shocked as he saw exactly why the little weird seemed so happy, for some reason the Wargs, along with their riders slowed down and made a quick stop next to the van, a lone Warg getting close to the vehicle without a rider. Within seconds, Ezekiel jumped off the roof of the van and onto the snarling beast's back, after which one of the orcs passed Ezekiel a jagged sword, the blade blackened with blood.

"About time we found fresh prey," the orc snarled. "What took you so damn long!?"

Ezekiel merely snarled at that and spat a blob of acid into the orcs eyes, causing him to scream in pain and fall off his Warg, which in turn caused the other orcs, along with Ezekiel to roar with laughter. It was then another orc approached him on his Warg, the leader by what G could tell, a short crook-legged creature, who was very broad and with long arms that hung off the sides of the Warg like a an ape as he clutched his blade, he also wore a fierce scowl as he brandished his fangs at Ezekiel.

"Keep in mind whelp that while you may be amusing at times, you are only alive because the Mistress deems it!" he snapped, much to Ezekiel's anger. "Now make yourself useful and get riding!"

At those words Ezekiel raised his blade a roared as it he was leading a charge, within seconds the orcs and he gave chase to the group on their beasts. As he rode, Ezekiel looked just as brutally hideous as the orcs did, with their yellowed fangs, murky sallow-skin and heavy iron armour, though the reason WHY he was with them was beyond G's understanding.

"Skewer them all!" their leader cried. "I thirst for blood!"

It was then that any orc with any form of bow began firing arrows towards the group, thankfully most of them had terrible aim and many of the arrows missed their mark, either flying past the group or hitting the ground beneath their feet, however eventually one arrow got lucky.

"AHHH! MY ARM!" Laura screamed as the arrow pierced her flesh.

"Oh no, Laura!" Goggles yelled in response, seeing the arrow sticking out on either side of Laura's upper left arm.

It took Laura every ounce of strength she had to force herself to try to block out the searing pain and keep running, however she soon became on the verge of collapsing. Suddenly G spotted a sharp turn in the gorge ahead and an idea popped into his head, leading the group around the corner, they quickly disappeared from the orcs' line of vision, if only for a brief moment, snarling with fury Ezekiel led the pack around the corner in pursuit, however little did they realise that at that moment they had been had by G's running. As soon as the orcs and Ezekiel had run past, G led the group out of the small crevice in the wall of rock they were hiding in.

"That won't fool them for long," G said seriously. "Orcs have a sharp sense of smell and Ezekiel's just as dangerous as they are."

"So what are we gonna do then!?" Lug snapped.

"And what about Laura?" Edward asked.

"She won't last long if those things get us!" Goggles added. "And I should know about this sort of thing!"

Needless to say, everyone had a point, they needed a plan quick and Laura's injury could cause her to faint from blood loss if not treated soon. It was time to take some immediate action.

"Go," he finally said, to everyone's shock. "When the orcs pass by, keep heading down the gorge, I'll draw them off."

However no one thought that was a smart move on G's part, they may not have known him that well but still they didn't want to see him become Warg-food for their sakes.

"Don't be a fool, lad!" Mossy scolded.

"Yeah dude," Goggles added. "As an expert on being chased I'd have to say that those things will outrun you!"

But G merely smirked at that.

"Once again you underestimate me mate," he said, casually tipping his hat. "Because I'd like to see them try."

With that G then took off at full speed back into the open, ushering the others once again to take cover as he let out a burst of blue flames at the orcs to get their attention, picking up a stone and hurling it at their leaders head just to rile them up even more. As stone as the stone came into contact with the leader's head every orc, along with Ezekiel quickly turned and snarled at their target, who at this point was jumping on the spot and making silly faces at them.

"Nya! Nya! Come and get me!" G yelled as he blew raspberries at them.

Upon seeing this, Ezekiel was the first to roar with fury and ride his Warg towards him, quickly followed by the others as their leader sounded the charge.

"TEAR HIM APART!" he cried, rubbing his throbbing head.

Now G's plan came into full effect, as soon as the Wargs gave chase, he then made a dash into the opposite direction, leading the beasts and their riders away from the group, all the while laughing his head off at their expense. As soon as they couldn't see their friend or the orcs anymore, the rest of the group did what was asked of them and took the chance of escape, running back down the gorge as fast as their legs could carry them. Meanwhile G kept the orcs busy with his silly antics.

"Oh come on boys!" he called out to them as he easily dodged their arrows. "It's like you're not even trying!"

At those words, the orcs roared with even more fury than before, for someone so small he was certainly enough to get on their nerves, and that was something G was counting on if his plan was going to work.

"Hey lads!" he yelled, pulling a grenade out of his hat and pulling out the pin. "Think fast!"

It didn't even take the orcs a single second before the active bomb came hurling towards them, within seconds both they and Ezekiel screamed as the ball of fire burst above their heads.

#

Hearing the explosion from behind them, the group couldn't help but stop for a moment, their faces stricken with fear.

"What was that!?" Laura gasped.

"Sounded like it came from where G led the orcs!" Spud pointed out, much to the group's horror.

"We gotta go back!" Goggles screamed, the fear for G's life overcrowding his judgment.

"But G said to keep going," Edward pointed out.

Goggle growled at that.

"I don't care what that yahoo said!" he snapped. "I'm not just gonna run away while he goes off and gets himself killed!"

"We can't just go charging in!" Lug retorted. "Can't you see that Laura's wounded!? We have no chance, lad!"

However that only made Goggles tense up even more, if fact he was becoming so angry at this point that he was almost on the brink of going into one of his rages.

"I can't believe you guys!" he yelled. "You would just abandon him like… Wait, WHERE'S NYX!?"

It was then that everyone else scanned their surrounded and noticed that a certain Alicorn filly was indeed missing, they didn't know how long she hadn't been with them but one thing was for sure and that was the fact that the fear factor had just doubled.

#

Had the group bothered to check the skies above them, they would have spotted a small black shake flapping her wings like a humming bird to soar above the Orc pack and follow what was going on, she knew it was dangerous, especially if any of the orcs decided to look up but she was also too stubborn to let own of her friends face danger alone. After witnessing the explosion from above, Nyx's jaw dropped upon seeing the numerous bodies of the orcs and their Wargs struggling to recover from receiving a full hit from one of G's grenades. Of course none of G's weapons were designed to kill, maim, seriously injure maybe, but never kill, after all if he did such a thing to any creation that would cause a terrible consequence towards the story he was in, especially if he attacked a main character. Of course Nyx had no clue about any of this and just assumed that G merely missed, however that aside her mission was still in full-swing.

"G, up here!" she called out, quickly spotting the Living Genre on his back only a few yards away from the closest Warg.

Easily recognising the voice, G quickly sat up with a look of panic across his face.

"What the hell are you doing here!?" he snapped, completely astounded that Nyx chose to disobey him.

However Nyx knew that this wasn't the time nor the place for any arguments.

"Escape now, questions later!" she quickly said, activating her magic.

Before G could say another word, he was enveloped in a blue aura and was lifted off the ground, within a matter of seconds both he and Nyx were airborne and heading off back towards the rest of the group.

"Wow, you're stronger than you look," G admitted, admiring Nyx's abilities

"You can thank the Alicorn Magic for that," Nyx replied with a smile. "Now come on we gotta… LOOK OUT!"

All of a sudden an arrow shot between Nyx and G's floating body narrowly missing them by inches as they pushed each other out of the way. Acting on instant, Nyx then dropped her hold on G and focused her magic on creating a sphere of protection around them, which was a good thing because as soon as the first arrow flew by, both G and Nyx looked down to see the orcs quickly recovering from their ordeal and firing every arrow they had at the floating ball of magic in the sky.

"SHOOT THEM DOWN!" their leader screamed, Ezekiel pounding his chest and snarling in angered agreement.

While the sphere around them may have been holding, Nyx knew she couldn't keep in up for long, especially since she had to let G go to keep it up, who at this point was now standing inside it and making it harder for her.

"Guess that last bomb didn't work so well," G said sheepishly, nervously looking at the clearly pissed off orcs and their Wargs below them.

"Don't you have another one of those explode-y things?" Nyx asked, remembering what she saw G do the first time.

"I'm not MADE of explosives, you know!" G retorted. "Even my power has limits and I just used up the LAST of my stockpiled grenades… but I might be able to use something else."

Nyx raised an eyebrow at that.

"What do you mean?" she asked curiously as another arrow bounced off her barrior.

At those words, G began to fiddle around with his cybernetic arm, granted altering things around him caused him to loose energy, but whenever it came to his own body G could easily morph it into any form he wanted. In this case, G began to shift his Sci-Fi based arm to change it into some form of weapon that Nyx didn't recognise.

"Think you can keep this shield up for a bit?" he finally said.

"I guess so," Nyx replied, though clearly not understanding G's intentions in the slightest but trusting him regardless.

G couldn't help but smile at that, after which he then gently pushed his now weaponised arm through the barrier, allowing the nozzle to poke out and aims at his targets.

"Good," he said, narrowing his eyes with determination. "Now circle back and dive! Dive! DIVE!"

Nodding with understanding, Nyx then followed G's instructions and proceeded to fly the sphere of magic directly towards the orcs and dive-bombed into place as G fired his new weapon.

#

Author's Notes:

The Character Nyx belongs to Pen Stroke / :iconPenstrokepony:

The Character Laura belongs to :icontwokinds: