Finn grimaces as he strolls forward in the disgusting goo that made the environment. His head was on a swivel as he constantly glances about, his fingers rolling their grip on his handle. He was not alone, he could feel their presence.
Still, he doesn't halt his march as follows the yellow pipe above him, listening to the thunks and thumps of the nymph crawling within. He has to get her path open, and he has to help Ice Queen. He sighs, 'This is all my fault. I bought them here, chasing Martin like that… like, he isn't even my dad! Joshua is! He's just connected to me through blood…'
He shakes his head clear of doubt, and pushes on, watching as the path he walks gradually begins to become larger and larger. In the end, the tunnels were the size of a house, making Finn gawk slightly, 'How has their security not detected this!?' Before he could question a possible weakness in the citadel's defences, he hears a loud hiss.
Immediately he snaps to his right, his blade to his chest as more of the worm/snake creatures begin to crawl from their hiding spots in the floors, walls, and ceiling. He immediately lunges at them with a slash of his blade, cutting one down as it drops from the roof. Then he spins on his feet, and pounces at another while he raises his blade high above his head, then slamming it down.
He's able to slice two down in one lucky blow, but more creep in from all around him. He grimaces, thanking glob he can fight targets smaller than him after years with goblins and pests. Thus, keeping his blade aimed low, he spins, the tip of his blade hovering just an atom above the sticky goo floor.
His blade sweeps into his foes as his strong offense acts as a good defence, the attack creating a ring of safety around him. Yet the hive creatures still attempt to lunge at him, their wretched screeches getting cut off when his blade slices cleanly through them. One after another die, yet they simply kept crawling towards their potential food, bodies piling around the hero.
By the time he starts to get dizzy and stumbles to a halt, there had to be thirteen dead worms around him. Yet there were plenty more live ones. He swiftly runs forward while sweeping his blade, chopping any foe in front of him down as he escapes the one behind him.
One suddenly lunges from his left, and he stabs his blade straight through the middle of it, turning it into a shish kebab. Using the momentum, he continues the arm movement to pull his whole body into a spin, facing the creatures behind him.
He charges at them, blade held away from his body in prime position to be swung as he counts twelve more. With a yell he snaps his blade past him like a flash of lightning, cutting down two worms as they lunge for his flesh.
Then he slashes his blade upwards as to send another worm and the one still stuck on his blade flying. He combos it with a slam of his weapon, hitting the worm mid air and slamming it into another as he cuts through them both.
One lunges onto his metal arm, the long spiky serpent creature wrapping tightly around it as the metal screeches under its tight grip. Finn grimaces, and hacks the worm off with his blade, letting its body hit the floor as he then locks onto a large person sized one shooting towards him. He pulls his metal fist back, and at the last second launches forward as he punches it square in the jaw.
It flies backwards as its comrades come to distract Finn, yet the hero simply charges by them, bobbing and weaving around their slithering forms. He watches it crawl away, yet grabs it by its tail, before harshly swinging it above his left shoulder, then spinning around.
He slams its body back down on its unrelenting friends, its spiky armour piercing and killing two of them. Finn does a swift swipe with his blade straight up the large one's body, gutting it as he hops back to assess. There were only four left, and they were straight in front of him.
He takes no chances, and holds his ground as they cautiously slither towards him, patiently watching them approach. One suddenly leaps at him from the left, causing him to spin to his left as he swipes his sword from the right.
His blade chops straight through it mid air, yet its comrades swiftly follow their fallen brethren, lunging at him with maws wide. He continues the spin, and swoops his blade upwards at angle, diagonally cutting another two. The last one lands on him, and bites into his waist as he grimaces, yet swiftly slices it in half before it could do anything major.
After a quick check of his wound and applying a light amount of cyclops tears, he proceeds ahead full speed, sprinting down the large corridor. He can hear the creatures crawling in the walls all around him. But they get blocked out by a horrific screech so loud the tunnels shake violently, stumbling the hero as he falls into the goo.
He hunkers down, waiting for it to be over, and once the loud scream stops does he risk moving to a stand, his eyes wide. Huntress bangs on the pipe, causing him to jump and snap his gaze up to her as she yells, "Finn! Are you alright!? What was that!?" She panics inside the tube, preparing to leap from the tube and save the hero from some beast.
He bellows back, "I'm fine! Whatever did that is nowhere near me!" He snaps his head about, "I think… how much longer to the next valve?" He worries, his gaze scanning the tunnel for the control panel, 'They might have destroyed it...'
The nymph squints as her huntress vision pierces through the dark, "... We've got a little bit to go, you should actually be able to see it."
Finn bites his tongue, "Ah cranberries… alright I'll have a look around!" He yells as she begins to move forward again, the hero glancing at the walls around him. More of the snake-like creatures appear, the duo's loud bellows having caught their attention. He grimaces and prepares to charge, but then realises how many were swarming in, a flood of deadly parasites coming his way with ear shattering screeches.
He stands still for a second, trying to process everything before him, before giving up and spinning around to run. He needs to thin the horde out. He darts forward as the worm creatures seek him out, becoming a line as the fastest and fittest make it to the front of the horde. The hero spins around, and yells a war cry as he slams his sword straight down, the blade crashing into the horde as multiple die to the blow.
However, the creatures begin crawling up his arm as he goes wide eyed. He immediately backs it up as he violently shakes his arm, trying to whip them off. One of them is able to keep their grip however and bites his arm with its razor sharp teeth causing him to release a muffled squeak. His other metal hand grips it, and rips the snake creature off, swiftly throwing it at the mouth of another larger worm creature.
It flies into its mouth where it swiftly gets chomped on. And immediately the other bugs swarm the traitor. As they tear apart the worm who killed their brethren, Finn turns around and rushes back to Huntress. He swiftly starts looking around for the control panel buried somewhere beneath all the goo, but is forced to stop when he hears a loud clunk to his left.
He snaps his head to the noise, and stumbles back in shock at the sight before him. A guard stood before him, but the worms were completely wrapped around its form, popping in and out of its form. Its skin bulges and shifts as the worms move under its skin, shuffling their flesh suit towards their next prey. Their spiky exoskeleton prods through, ripped flesh being polka dotted with sharp spikes that makes the defiled soldier that much deadlier.
Finn stares in shock and terror at the unfortunate soul moving towards him, before snapping out of it and charging it. He slashes his blade at the abomination, cutting it in half straight through the gut in one precise swoop as the dissected parts fall to the floor. However they continue to move, the top half crawling as it reaches for its prey, only to get booted away by Finn.
The human stares at it, then grimaces, 'I'm going to have to kill each worm inside individually!' He immediately gets slashing with savage chops and cuts, butchering the corpse as it constantly reaches for him. The right arm lifts for his leg, he slices it off. The head goes to bite him, it goes flying in half. The chest scrunches as it crawls for him, his blade plunges into its flesh.
It takes him a bit, but in the end, all the worms inside were dead as he pants, staring at the gory mess before him. Then he hears the scratching and squelching behind him as more worms shoot towards him. He spins around with a slash of his sword for safety, and luckily enough gets a snake thing mid leap, its dead parts slapping into his body harmlessly.
He squints as he stares at his sea of foes now finished with killing their unintentional traitor, watching them swarm towards him. He needs a way to kill a lot of them quickly. Before he could make a plan, a large one leaps at him with a hiss, causing the hero to swipe his blade up into it.
It launches the creature upwards and into the ceiling with a massive wound underneath it, letting it and its spikes fall back down into its comrades. As it impales three of its friends, Finn rushes the horde as he holds his metal arm out, "Weed whacker!" His hand transforms as he starts swinging with both arms, slashing them as fast as he can to keep up the slaughter against the onslaught of snakes.
They constantly lunge for him as he constantly cuts them down, their corpses hitting the floor and piling up, forming a blockade for the next. Finn's blade swoops by his face, blocking one as they crash into the broadside and cutting down another in one swing. His spinning hand lunges forward, shooting through a bunch or worms like a hot knife through butter.
However, despite the speed of a veteran hero who can take on whole armies by himself, they were slowly overwhelming him. He hears noises behind him, and discovers more of the bodies being piloted by the worms trudging towards him. With a yell he clears everything before him with a wide swoop, then leaps backwards away from them.
Spinning around, he rushes by the 'twisted' soldiers, slashing one in half as he rushes to roughly where the wood nymph was, "Huntress! I don't see a panel and there's too many! I'm going to have to get creative, just hold on!"
With her informed of the situation, in which she remains completely silent about except for gritting her teeth, he turns to his charging foes. With a yell he counter strikes, slashing his blade in a wide arc as he cuts several worms down. He boots the twisted as they tumble to the ground, their sluggish bodies taking a while to stand up as Finn snaps his head around.
He locks onto the next pipe and with a growl rushes towards it with a plan forming in his mind. He stands before it, and holds his ground, chopping and butchering anything that gets near him. Slowly, the horde closes in, building up around the hero as he grins, cutting a large worm in half. Hisses and twisted screeches come from the creatures as they close in on their prey.
Finally, Finn suddenly spins around and plunges his blade into the tube. Immediately a loud hiss that drown outs the worms escapes the pipe as the explosive gas leaks free from around the hero's sword. He holds his breath and quickly leaps away, letting the heavy gas hit the floor and slowly fill the corridor up, This is going to take a while!'
Until the violently escaping gas is deadly enough, he has to survive. He abandons offence to go on defence, holding his blade close to his chest with both hands, watching them approach. A large one lunges for him, and he slashes his blade upwards while stepping backwards, cutting it in half while creating room. A twisted sluggishly approaches the man, and consequently gets cut down to size as Finn targets the snakes inside its body. He unrelentingly swings his sword, turning the former person into mince meat, before booting another worm creeping up on him.
The gas levels were rapidly rising, evidence by how Finn was occasionally coughing as the air seemed to be covered in some cloud. He grimaces, and waits a bit longer, he has one shot and can't waste it. The worms and twisted begin to swarm his position, flanking him to prevent any escape as he dices with all he's got. He's blade was spinning around his body as if he was a fan, stabbing behind him and slashing before him.
He grabs a worm mid lunge and lobs it at another's maw, the creature biting down and killing its comrade as its former friends becomes its foe. Finn grins, yet when he passes his blade to his flesh hand, a massive worm bites down on his metal one, completely enveloping it inside its body.
Finn gives a cry of pain as its razor sharp teeth try to shred his metal arm, but it's able to hold its structural integrity. But fuck did it hurt! The hero immediately punches it in the face, stunning it hard enough for its jaws to slacken. Finn then swiftly cuts the beast in half, the front half falling off his limb as he flings the second at another worm, impaling it on its spiky armour.
Finally, Finn gives a yell of rage as the gas fills the corridor, the snake things closing in, the twisted reaching for him. He raises his blade, and lobs it at the pipe again before disappearing into an ice shield, the cocoon protecting him. As the creatures bite and gnaw on his protection, his blade spins through the air deliberately at a slight angle.
It hits the tube, but due to it not being straight, gets deflected.
In a shower if sparks.
The gas violently erupts, exploding into a sea of hell fire with an ear shattering screech and bang as the shockwave shakes the area. Everything is incinerated as the creatures are erased from existence in an instant, them, the bodies they control, all of it.
It lasted only a few seconds, but it was enough to shake Finn and Huntress up as they both remain completely still in shock. Finn snaps back into it first, swiftly dropping his gift from Ice Queen as he gazes at the environment. Everything was black and charred, all that was remaining of his foes was piles of ash blasted against the walls.
He shakes his head and rushes to the still intact pipes, 'Thought so. I doubt the designers wanted these to explode. They were made to be tough.' He walks up to his girlfriend sitting silently within her tube, and gently taps the pipe, "Huntress… the erh, the gas is gone." He informs her, yet she remains silent and still, causing him to begin to panic.
However, she finally hits her button, and her pipe opens up to the empty, burnt one. She immediately rushes forward, darts out the hole the explosion made, and punches Finn square in the face. He goes tumbling to the floor as she jumps atop him, gripping him by the collar as her eyes were slits. She violently shakes him with teeth bared, "WHAT WERE YOU THINKING!? CAUSING AN EXPLOSION! WITHOUT! TELLING! ME!" She screams into him, her teeth becoming razor sharp.
He doesn't respond initially, his mind too scrambled from the shaking to think, yet he eventually snaps out of it and stares up at her in slight fear, "Erh, sorry? It kinda… slipped from my mind in the chaos…" He shrinks, his gaze flicking up guiltily at her own angry yet stern eyes, getting lost in the tamed maelstrom inside of them, "Sorry."
She continues to remain silent for a few seconds, breathing heavily as her hot breath washes over his face, before harshly letting go of him, throwing him to the ground as she tenses her hands, "YOU-!" She releases a frustrated groan, then a deep breath, closing her eyes for a second to let the red haze leave her, before opening them again.
Her gaze lingers on Finn's face, and she gradually begins to calm down, releasing another sigh as to disguise her light smile, "You're lucky I love you." Her head twists away as a frown forms in the usually stoic face, "I thought I lost you then…"
Finn immediately wraps her in a hug as he sits up, holding her tight, "I'm sorry, I won't let it happen again, I won't make you worry about me again."
She remains frozen, before her arms wrap around him tightly, "I... didn't want you to leave me…" She sniffs. Finn's eyes go wide. She sniffles again, "I- I didn't want another to leave me. I couldn't lose someone else, not again… not another! Not like my mum and dad, not like-" She suddenly goes silent as she holds herself against him, and Finn was all too willing to support her as they remain still and silent in the deadly hive. The fire burned so fiercely, those screams ringed out damningly as they were gutted alive, the cries torment her hauntingly as they her people were sacrificed in twisted rituals.
They sway slightly as Huntress steels herself, before pulling away from the grasp of her boyfriend and standing tall. He stares at her face, discovering no tears or signs of sadness anywhere on her face, a stoic, calm expression masking whatever she was truly feeling, as she extends a hand to him, "Sorry. That was pretty pathetic of me."
He blinks, but accepts the help up, letting her swiftly pull him to his feet, "No, it wasn't. You were worried about me." He grabs her shoulders, and stares deeply into her eyes, "You're not soft for feeling emotions, you're not weak for crying."
She brushes off his hands, "Yeah yeah, having emotions isn't bad, look, let's just move on again and say this never happened, okay?"
He shakes his head with a small smirk, "Nope! Not happening… but what did you say back there? About your mum and dad? What happened to them?" He probes, trying to get inside her hard outer shell, to get to know the Huntress hidden within.
"Nothing, let's move on." She says bluntly, causing the hero to raise an eyebrow at her with a slight smirk, triggering her to sigh, "You know you're the only one who can do this to me? To make me cave? This… this wasn't the first time that I just sat and listened to the people I care about die...on that day… well, I wasn't strong enough that day." She explains, her eyes going slightly unfocused. Arrows flew through the air yet the young girl called Diana was hiding in the cupboard, she was too weak to join them in the fight. Her parents fought though. The screams-
The hero frowns in sympathy, leaning forward and kissing her on the lips as he jolts her out of her memories, 'Well you are now. You're the toughest gal I know,' His hands hold her steady, rubbing her lightly in comfort, 'You've nothing to worry about. You're tough, you're deadly, you're caring, you're beautiful…' He pulls back from the kiss, "You're Huntress, the watcher of the forest. The woman I love."
Through the bond he could feel her joy and embarrassment, the mixture that makes her slight blush and small smile that sits on her face. She turns away, heading for the pipe as she drags her mate along, "Where did you get the silver tongue from?"
He shrugs with a beaming smile, "Out of nowhere, apparently… but, will you tell me what happened? With your family?"
She gently shakes her head, "No, not now, another day maybe, when I am apparently hard enough to show you my soft side." She kisses him, before staring at the pipe, "Now, back to the eyes on our prize, I may have lost my dad, doesn't mean you should as well." She hops inside the burnt pipe, crawling through the explosion hole for a second, before glancing at Finn, soaking up the image of her beloved. "... I love you bear." She tells him with a blush, then crawls deeper.
Finn chuckles, "I love you too, honey."
With that, he turns his head to the path ahead, that although was now burnt black and crackling with tiny fires, he can't help but grin as he grabs his blade from the floor. Despite the explosion, it was unscathed except being caked in black ash, though the hero simply brushes it off with a small grin. He holds his blade out to the side, and rushes down the tunnel, heading deeper into the hive as the tunnels slowly get bigger, and weirdly, the slime becomes thicker and stickier.
Whatever was laying down the goo was just up ahead, and worse, Huntress tunnel was widening as multiple pipes connected up to it, becoming one large main line that gradually goes upwards. Soon, he won't be able to be beside the nymph if something went wrong. He shrugs, 'She can handle herself just fine.' Suddenly, the area before him widens and grows as the tunnel comes to an end, and enters a very large chamber as Finn pales, "Oh boy…"
He carefully makes his way inside, discovering a massive sphere room made of destroyed metal, slime, and just holes. He stands at the edge, staring in slight awe at what was before him. The destroyed room was as big as a city! Then the station shakes violently, and the bottom of the sphere something massive moves.
A long, large worm awakens, the earth shaking as it unwinds from within itself, its head slowly rising as its thousands of spikes glistening the room light. It stares at Finn, then gives a mighty roar as the citadel shakes, spit flying as its four jaws part.
Finn stands completely still, eyes wide as the sticky spit soaks him and the area, the hero wiping the worst off as he blinks. "Oh… boss battle." The queen of the worms lunge at him as he dives atop Huntress's pipe to evade, the great beast chomping out the floor completely.
The hero stares at the head the size of a house, and lunges onto it by grabbing one of the spikes the size of his arm. It pulls back as he gives a yell, trying desperately to hold on as it flings its head about.
The hero grits his teeth and clenches one hand to hold on tight, and swings his blade with all his might at the armour. It chinks a bit off, but with the armour of the worm queen so thick it was was likely going to take a while to get to something vita!. He grimaces as he snaps his gaze about, locking onto the beast's tail as it roars towards him at insane speeds.
With a cry he lets go, his momentum flinging him to the left as he eyes a platform of broken metal, hitting it with a roll to soften the blow. The metal creaks and groans under his weight, yet it holds steadily as he spins to face the beast, analysing it for weaknesses as it lunges for him. He immediately starts running, jumping off his platform and onto another as the beast destroys the former.
He skids under a sticking out pipe, just as the worm queen gags, as if choking on something. As the hero glances at it, its maw opens wide to spit out a massive gollop of slime that shoots towards Finn, the hero hurriedly skidding to a stop. It slams into the ground in front of him, covering it completely in a thick layer of sticky goop as he grimaces, 'I'm a sitting duck if I get hit with that!'
Spinning around and leaping to his right instead, he avoids the fresh pile of slime as the beast slithers after him, shooting towards him like a train. It rams through everything as Finn watches it approach, then suddenly spins around and rushes towards it at the last second.
He leaps at it just as its maw opens wide to envelope him, the hero yelling as he grabs one if the beast's tooth by the edge if its mouth. Then using his momentum flings himself out the maw just as it closes down on him, the queen getting nothing but a mouth full of metal as he lands just at its lips. He rushes away from the mouth then leaps in the air, pulling his sword back before plunging it deep into the armour with all his might.
It sinks in as blood weakly oozes, the equivalent to getting a paper cut. He immediately goes to town however, slashing and stabbing, removing chunks and flakes of armour, not a bit deterred by the lack of success. The beast withers at the slight scratching sensation it was receiving, its tail whipping about to scratch its troublesome problem.
Finn leaps off as the tail swipes into where he was, but was not quick enough, clipping him slightly as he arcs through the air with a cry. He hits a platform hard with a grunt of pain, the weakened pipes failing as he falls again, hitting another layer with a bang. He groans in pain, but when he hears the roar of the incoming goliath snake he snaps up.
Scrambling to his feet he rushes deep into a tunnel behind him just as the queen goes to take a chomp out of the floor he was just on. The tunnel behind him collapses as the maw shreds the walls and floors as Finn leaps in desperation. He hits the floor as the worm's mouth eats everything just behind him, the hero hurriedly crawling away to create room. After he stares at it for a second, it begins to pull away, and he jumps to his feet and rushes after it.
He grabs a hold with a move that could only be called a hug, and is promptly yanked out by the beast. Upon realising what was going on, the creature roars as it once again tries to remove the pest, yet this isn't Finn's first rodeo. He holds on tight as he is flung about, waiting for the opportunity to strike as the beast eventually begins to slow down.
Then, its maw opens wide as it looks to the sky, and promptly starts violently flicking its head about again. Finn is flung over the edge of its lip, grabbing the edge with both hands as he dangles above it razor filled maw. It continues to shake, and Finn continues to hold on, before eventually stabbing his blade into the soft inside of its maw.
It goes to snap its jaw shut as a result of the prick, and the hero flips free of the mouth as the joggling stops. He spins around just as he flies out of its mouth, and launches his arm forward at its lip. Gripping the edge he yanks himself towards it then to hang on the lip, then slides down its smooth armour. His weapon plunges into the exoskeleton, swiftly jolting him to a halt, then holding onto his blade with his flesh hand pulls his robot metal one back, "Drill!"
His motorised hand digs into the exoskeleton, slowly making its way through the thick armour as the beast attempts to remove him. It swiftly swings its head at a team of major pipes sticking up, and the hero hurriedly yanks his sword free to fall. He tumbles and hits the ground just before the beast hits the rubble, destroying everything next to him. He gets up and curses, looking around as the beast rears its head back, 'There's got to be a way to beat this thing!'
He snaps his gaze about, and locks onto a massive part of the room's wall, all crumbled and damaged from years of expansions. But it was far. Getting up, he begins his rush towards it, slowly climbing up the sphere shaped environment of broken pipes and wires. Hopping up platforms of rubble and metal, he flicks his gaze at the royal snake thing, and discovers it gagging up more spit.
It pukes the sticky goo at him as he dives inside a tunnel path, the adhesive slime covering the area just outside. He glances up, and finds a pile of skeletons of unlucky soldiers before him, the hero grimacing and ignoring them as he looks up. He can't go outside with the sticky goo awaiting to trap him, thus aiming his arm up he starts the drill mode.
The queen prepares for its prey to return, but when it doesn't show up it decides to go on the offensive. It charges the tunnel, screeching as its maw opens wide to envelope it, only for Finn to suddenly leap free above it. He immediately takes evasive actions as it destroys everything beneath him, eating the tunnel he was just in as he continues to sprint. He darts for the room's wall far ahead, keeping his gaze locked on his path as he slowly goes uphill, the snake being burrowing towards him.
He snaps his gaze behind him discovering the metal pipes and concrete slabs bulge and crumble as the worm digs beneath the 'earth'. He pants as he rushes as fast as he can, before giving a cry and spinning around, lobbing his blade down towards it just as it shoots from the ground. It hisses as its maw opens wide to envelop him and his sword goes plunging into its gullet.
Its jaw clamps down on the sword as Finn rolls out of harm's way, letting it get eaten by the beast. Sure enough, the creature rears back and spits the incredibly sharp object out with a pool of blood as Finn runs to catch his weapon. He grasps it mid air, and spins to face the worm as it lunges for him enraged. The hero gives a war cry as he charges at it, the duo clashing mid air as he slices at one of its four jaws.
He digs deep into its soft flesh as the jaw closes, pinning the weapon between all its teeth. The hero hangs from his blade as the creature tries to whip him off with its tail, yet the human swiftly avoids it by swaying on his handle. He eventually does a full flip and squats atop his sword, then pounces on the worm's head, a hand snapping to hold his blade again.
The beast opens its maw to try and bite at Finn, and the knight swiftly yanks his weapon free, before stabbing into its skull. It screeches in pain, then shoots forward in an attempt to knock the hero off with some rubble. Yet the boy simply raises his tech shield, and any flying rocks and pipes were harmlessly blocked with ease. It doesn't know this however, and goes full speed ahead, hitting object after object as it shoots towards the wall, cracks forming on its armour.
Finally, its size allows it to make the journey in no time at all, yet to stop itself injuring itself from hitting a wall at high speeds, it harshly halts before it. Finn uses the momentum to his advantage, dropping the shield and pulling his blade free as he is flung at the wall. Landing hard yet with both feet on the wall, he springs back sword-first, stabbing the beast in the head once more.
Blood is spilt as it swiftly whacks him off with its tail, the hero hitting the ground and bouncing before skidding to a halt. He spins with his slide, ending up on all four and facing his foe, before rushing it once more and leaping at it. It opens its mouth to snap him up, but he activates his dangerously low ice necklace and the cocoon forms around him.
The beast bites the super hard ice and promptly shatters all its teeth on it, letting go screaming in pain it swats it with its tail. The magic barrier promptly hits the wall hard with a thump, and damages it as cracks grow from the impact. The massive amount of wall crumbles, and releases an earthly groan as it tumbles towards the royal snake thing.
It tries to dart away, but is no way near fast enough as the wall crashes atop it, the citadel shaking violently as a massive cloud of dust and debris is flung up. After a minute of bangs, roars of metal bending, and screeches of pipes shattering, Finn undoes his cover cautiously. Immediately some rubble falls on him that was sitting atop the cocoon, yet the hero shrugs the pain off and shoves it all off him.
Rising up, his gaze sweeps the area, though constantly darting back to the massive bulge of rubble that rests completely still. That was clearly where the queen was, but the question was, was it dead? He cautiously approaches it with sword in hand, and prods the rubble, moving it aside to see the dark red armour beneath it all. He jabs it.
Immediately the beasts start to rise as the debris falls off it, the area shaking as the worm rises up, a huge crack in its armour. Finn immediately starts stabbing and slashing, using the moment of its stunned rising to do as much damage as possible. It shakes its head, then spins around to face him, lunging at the hero with jaw wide as he rolls away with a grimace, 'I'm going to need bigger firepower!'
Meanwhile, deeper down a little in the hive, Ice Queen grunts as she is harshly dragged deeper, the worms binding her up her limbs completely with their own bodies. She grimaces as they hold her waist, crushing her tender wounds as they flair up in pain, causing her to struggle lightly to break free. She glances around, noticing the tiny, young snake things all around her, attempting to follow her as she is pulled towards the heart of the hive.
She immediately seeks a way to break free as she is pulled past some alien skeletons picked clean of any meat. She's not going to die here! She has to protect Finn and Huntress! She continues to wriggle and writhe, trying to gut the ones pulling her with her armour's spikes, yet she achieves nothing. She attempts to break free via sheer might, yet a stab of pain from her wounds prevents her as she gasps in sudden suffering.
Finally, they enter a large open roof chamber with white eggs littering the ground, the goo holding down several past prey as small, young larva crawl about. They push her into the floor, the very fresh adhesive slime holding her down as she yells in effort as she attempts to tug herself free. After her limbs snap back into the ground, she pants and glances about, her gaze on anything that came near her.
Suddenly, the larva swarm towards an alien, and dig in, biting chunks out in a swarm, and burrowing their way inside as the royal watches in horror. The body convulses, becoming an ideal warm, wet place for the parasites to grow in as they fill its form. Then, the corpse begins to move, the tiny snakes working together to pilot the suit of flesh as it rises up from the ground, then wanders away deeper. As the twisted leaves, more arrived, however these ones were carrying more bodies and struggling victims.
They throw them down, and more larva come to devour, creating an endless cycle for the creatures. Ice Queen glares. She refuses to be killed, to be used! She gives a cry of effort as she attempts to pull herself up again, her hands tingling to release a spell if she could just focus through her wound's pain.
Suddenly she spots movement from above her, from far in the distance on the rim of the massive chamber. It was Finn doing battle with the queen, spinning around a lunge and slashing at its neck. Her eyes widen, before she yells with all her might, "FINN!"
The hero jumps, nearly getting his head bitten off as a result of his sudden loss of focus, before snapping his gaze down the hole. He discovers his queen laying on her back as the larva crawl towards her, and his eyes fill with rage. Pulling his arm back, he lobs his blade down like Zeus throwing thunder, the weapon striking down next to her arm. It slices a baby snake in half, but more importantly it breaks some of the slime holding her arm down, causing her to grin.
She grunts as she lifts the limb with all her might, and the goo eventually snaps as her arm breaks free. Immediately she forms an orb of ice in her hand, and chucks it atop her chest, making it float up as it becomes a sentry. Instantly it starts spraying a machine gun spray of icicles at everything near her, painful screeches escaping the creatures at the threat.
As they close in, the royal begins ripping the rest of herself free, eventually being able to grab Finn's sword and start cutting away the slime. She eventually snaps to her feet just as they start to truly swarm in, the woman grimacing as they shoot towards her. Her hands rise and she starts blasting out a stream of magic, freezing the area in a thick layer of snow and ice.
Any creature hit by her dual blue beam instantly becomes an ice cube, dying in droves as she sweeps her arms everywhere. However, they were coming in from all directions and she only had two limbs, plus whatever the sentry was doing. She needs more distractions.
So to ease the pressure on her rapidly pumping injured chest, she starts spraying a different kind of ice. Immediately an army ice birds and soldiers form as she smirks, creating a thick group all around her. She finally creates her ice claws, and with a war cry joins her creations in the slaughter, slashing and dicing as a bird grabs Finn's sword.
With a screech it shoots towards the weapon-less hero who was climbing atop the giant, flailing worm. He was drilling away at its cracked head, when the ice creation swoops towards him, letting go of the blade mid air. Finn snaps his arm up and catches with a grin, yet the worm queen focuses her attention elsewhere, or more accurately, on the nest.
It watches its children die to the pale blue army, and gives an ear shattering cry as Finn and Ice Queen grimace. Immediately, echoes from other worms from all around the nest respond as the hero grimaces, scowling at them as they come crawling over the hills.
He stabs his blade into his foe's head again as it jolts in agony, and immediately tries swatting him off with its tail. Yet the hero holds firm with small evasions, causing it to start to move towards its children coming in from the distance. Immediately they start to climb up their queen to remove the pest for it, yet the human simply rips his sword free and jumps off. Landing on a worm by plunging a sword into its body, he immediately spins around as the horde and queen close in, and the hero counter charges with a yell.
Ice Queen meanwhile was inflicting her own slaughter, though not directly herself. She had to hang back due to her wounds, and thus was maintaining her army to inflict death instead. For every one of her soldiers that fell, the worms would close in, thus she would need to replace them as fast as possible. However, they definitely lived longer with stronger weapons and armour.
The wounds inflicted onto her may have stopped her being a powerhouse physically, but she was still no joking matter. She grins as she begins to get the hang of mobilising her group, her army, and leading them to victory. She creates a bunch of heavy duty guardsmen with massive spears that stab between short swordsmen as they hack away. The combined assault was an endless grinding machine of weapons gutting, cutting, butchering her foes in all directions.
She stands tall behind them, using her high height to judge the battle at hand and make changes to her forces. Anytime a regular swordsman becomes injured, she would instantly heal their wounds, keeping her men alive. She throws out a ball or two behind her as well, sentries floating up and blasting out explosive ice balls at massive swarms.
She smirks. She was learning to become a proper leader. She manages multiple fronts at once, shooting out soldiers whenever they are needed as they clash with the worm army. Then the worms come falling from above.
She snaps her arms up as they dive bomb her, her ice claws piercing through their armour with ease as they become skewered. With a yell she flicks their corpses off her claws and watches as her tightly compact knights struggle to turn and fight the worms diving between them. She growls, and releases more streams of creation ice, archers now being formed as they aim upwards.
Releasing their regenerating arrows, they snipe the falling reinforcements as they tumble off the edge, duck hunting them. Ice Queen meanwhile throws more orbs out, lobbing them into her troops as they roll between their feet. Then they promptly explode in an aura of chilling ice as the woman smirks, watching the creatures nibbling her men freeze up and die.
Not only that, but the constant cold reinforces her troop's armour as they focus back on the mass of them before them. While more guts and innards of spiky snakes go flying, the blue royal turns her gaze upwards, watching Finn. He was still dancing around the massive mother of worms, flicking between fighting of minions and stabbing the giant beast.
She curses, and glances at her hands. She can't push herself too hard, so she can't simply nuke the place without causing harm to herself. Growling, she attacks with a regular stream of low effort icicles, hoping not to attract Hekate's attention with all her sudden magic use. The stream smashes into the snake queen as it hisses in agony, the magic attack drilling a hole into its soft flesh as it shreds its armour with ease.
She keeps it up as long as she can, but slowly notices the unrelenting push by the endless force around her. Her soldiers and knights were getting pushed back or being slaughtered by the worms without her support. She bites her tongue, flicking her gaze between the love of her life and the small army protecting her own. She eventually sighs, and stops her attack to focus on her own troops, flinging out a bunch of explosive ice orbs in every direction.
Ice shrapnel shredded everything, including some of her own men yet her attention was already elsewhere, her hands glowing with a spell. She releases a beam of ice at the rim of the chamber, and quickly begins to make a flat path of ice. Directing it downwards in a straight line, she creates a wide ramp to her feet, then with a mental thought, orders her men to follow her.
She storms up the path, ice claws in her hands as she watches the worms swiftly shoot towards her. Archers shoot over the royal, raining the area in a barrage of sharp arrows as the remaining stragglers get slashed to ribbons by the queen herself. She stomps on their spiky corpses with her armoured feet, crushing them beneath her as she storms towards her beloved.
A twisted stumbles from a cave, climbing onto the ramp before charging clumsily towards her. Her response was to rear her arm back and plunge her claws into its head, holding it away at arms reach. Then her magic surges through its body, a massive ice spike shooting down through its whole form. Then, more grow off it, turning the former corpse into a Christmas tree of icicles, branches of icicles sticking out of it in all directions.
They of course, kill all the worms piloting the body, yet she simply drags the corpse behind her, the ice spikes screeching as it is dragged across the ramp. More worms and twisted come, and at the last second, she stomps her foot down, and an ice pillar slams into the former twisted turned weapon.
It gets launched up and over her head, yet her arm directs it back down as she slams it before her, crushing another twisted instantly. Then from the impact a wave of icicles shoot up from the ground, piercing and killing all the worms on the ramp in a brutal display. Ice Queen grunts, and releases her unorthodox weapon, the spiky corpse falling off the ramp and into more foes below.
Thanking adrenaline is distracting her from her wounds, she reaches the top of her ice path, and discovers only more foes awaiting her. She glances at Finn, and discovers him being pushed up hill by the queen snake, the man leaping from platform to platform. She glares, she can't waste any time. Her army gives a tremendous war cry as they rush from behind her, engaging the hostiles while she flaps her eyebrows with a grimace.
With a grunt of pain and a hand on her wounded gut, she takes to the air, keeping her breaths short and shallow to reduce strain. She swoops towards her hero, watching him desperately leap from collections of metal pipes to metal pipes, trying to avoid a head the size of a house. She immediately rushes to the rescue, and unleashes a bunch of ice at the phony queen. She's the only royal who can bite her hero!
Her attack slams into the injured creature again as it roars in pain, the force of the blow sending it tumbling into the ground. The resulting shake stumbles Finn on his platform of pipes, then the metal channels themselves shake out of their slots. He falls yet prepares to land the short distance between him and the ground, but before he could do anything Ice Queen swoops in.
Her arms catch him as she lifts them a bit away, worm soldiers and twisted hurriedly crawling after them. She grunts in pain at the sudden burst of activities, and swiftly moves to land them a bit away, letting go of Finn as he rolls to soften the blow. She comes down next to him, stumbling an extra few steps as her hands cup her midsection with a grunt.
Panting lightly for a second, she then shakes her head and twists to stare at her knight, "How's Huntress? Is she alive?"
He nods with a grimace, then points upwards at the pipes, "She's in there, the major pipe apparently doesn't have any venting valves, so she's in smooth sailing for now until she hits the wall." He snaps his gaze back down to her however, "But what about you? You're looking... rough. Heck, why or how are you here?" He inquires with genuine worry.
She shakes her head, "I'm fine, I was just dragged here by some of the worms." She answers honestly, aiming a hand over his shoulder and spraying her magic at one of them approaching, it's now ice cube body bouncing off the uncaring Finn.
He shakes head, "Glob damn it I shouldn't have left you alone… sorry." He grabs both her shoulders and stares intensely into her eyes, "I know you want to help, but you're wounded, and Huntress needs help. Open the final valve for her, and save her from the Citadel Guardian she's going to use to blast a hole in the wall." He orders sternly.
Ice Queen huffs, glancing away a moment to watch her army slowly get overrun by hostiles, and curses slightly, "And what about you? I'm going to leave you here to fight them alone!?" She demands an answer, pointing at the snake queen rushing towards them.
The hero's response was to spin around and lob his sword, the weapon spinning through the air before impaling the royal worm right in the mouth. It screeches in pain, jolting off course thanks to it, and hitting a wall unexpectedly. Unprepared, it bounces off it hard and falls over, its spiky armour piercing and crushing a swarm of her babies. Finn glances at her, "I'll be fine, go."
Ice Queen shakes her head, thinking of a counter argument, before huffing and pulling away, "Fine, but I'll be back as soon as I help Huntress!" She yells at him as she swiftly spins around and takes to the skies with a hand on her wounds.
Finn smirks, rolling his eyes with a grin at her words as he twists to face, muttering to himself, "Like you needed to say that~" He silently teases her personality as he watches the snakes recover, and rush towards him with their four jaws wide.
It was there he had a little flashback, all the way back to the start of this, with Orgalorg and the catalyst comet. Its open maw reminds him of the penguin's alternative form, and how he dealt with it last time. He stares at it rapidly approaching, then grimaces as he holds his blade to his chest and charges it. If the r is too thick to hit anything vital from the outside...
He sprints as fast as he can, building up speed swiftly as he stares at the massive worm's open mouth, teeth ready to shred him into pieces. At the last second, he leaps forward with all his might, shoving his sword forward as he closes his eyes.
He goes dead centre into the beast, shooting down its throat as its maw slam shut, and he is swallowed deeper. He grimaces, and takes his robot arm off his blade as his sword cuts up its insides, "Weed whacker!" He yells as the arm activates, and he starts shredding away deep inside the massive beast, where there's nothing to protect him from its vital organs.
The hero starts slashing in every direction as blood fills the small chamber he was making inside, the snake queen roaring in pain. He eventually just picks a direction, and starts digging away through the worm's insides, making sure to cut anything vital he sees. The massive creature writhes in agony, screeching for help as blood flies from its mouth.
The worm queen immediately starts slamming its whole body about, hitting as many hard metal pipes and solid walls as it can. The shockwaves hit and crush Finn, yet he continues regardless, discovering an organ the size of him and immediately going at it. He tears the soft flesh apart as he starts causing critical damage deep inside the beast.
As he slowly slaughters the worm from inside, Ice Queen swoops towards Huntress in the pipes, landing atop them and grimacing in pain. Taking a deep breath, she yells out with a flinch, "Huntress!" Immediately she gets a few bangs at the end of the pipe, sitting right at the wall that leads to the other side. She speed walks down the tube, eventually reaching the nymph as she hurries to the damaged console.
The watcher of the forest bangs against her prison, "Sarah!? What are you doing here!? Where's Finn!? What's going on out there!?" She worries for her hero, gripping her shotgun tightly and ready to break free at a moment's notice.
The royal sighs as she tries to get the console to work, doing quick, basic repairs on the wires, "Finn's fighting a giant worm beast, its minion worker drone thingies are everywhere, and I got dragged here by them." She swiftly explains, then smirks as the console lights up. Hitting the venting button, the massive main air vent begins to drain on the other side.
Then the royal blinks as the larger than usual pipe takes a moment, glancing behind her at the army of creatures attacking her forces and knight. Then smirks with an idea as she taps the pipe three times, signalling the nymph within.
Huntress hastily hits her button, the wide vent opening up as she scrambles onto the other side and swiftly aims her weapon at the wall before her. She squints and prepares herself, and pulls the trigger as the plasma shotgun unleashes its super hot load. Its double strike hits the wall, and immediately it begins to melt a small hole, hissing and sizzling as it burns it all away.
The nymph becomes a fly and shoots out the hole, transforming back to her normal self on the other side and snapping her head about. Analysing the situation, she seems to be in a huge room, with some of the Citadel Guardians docked and sleeping in between metal platforms, like ships at a shipyard. The others were hanging from the ceiling with help of massive cranes, and were being repaired by workers. Or were being repaired.
For now all attention was on her.
She immediately stands tall and shoots out her five magic arrows, striking at the closest guardian currently docked. Workers panic as they scream and shout in some other language, while soldiers drop in from holes in the walls, snapping their gaze to her immediately. They take aim and fire, causing the wood nymph to instantly flip backwards and stare at them.
Her arrows follow her gaze, rocketing into them as they shoot through their exposed necks, going completely through. They loop around in the air as their corpses flop to the floor, and shoot towards the citadel guardian once more. They ping against its head, breaking some chunks of red crystal off as it finally jolts awake, glancing about confused.
Until it locks onto the nymph. Its eyes light up as a massive laser beam blasts out of its head, Huntress having to dive out of the way as it strikes where she just was. She summons her arrows back to her as she rushes towards the wall, squinting as guards rush in from all directions. They take aim and start firing, the watcher of the forest grunting as she flips, rolls, and leaps out of their barrage.
As plasma rains down on her, she shoots out her arrows, making them dart from foe to foe as he single handily takes them all on. Her arrows lodge themselves into skulls of soldiers of all types, Huntress diving to them and ripping them free, only for them to shoot to a new foe. The Citadel Guardian squints as it watches her, firing its lasers in rapid strikes as it blasts holes into the environment.
She doesn't even break a sweat as she evades them all with ease. She whips her knife free and stabs it into a soldier's face, ripping its shotgun out of its hand and throwing it at another's head. As it stumbles back, the nymph forms a wooden splinter in her hand, and lobs it at it. It strikes it in the chest, and vines wrap around its form, tying its limbs together roast pig style.
Then more vines shoot out from it, and strike more of its fellow comrades, yanking them together into one bundle on the floor. She flips over them, her hands glowing with magic as she touches them, and immediately plants grow over them. They struggle, but it was no use as the growing plants wrap roots around them, and contract to kill them with a crunch, planning to use them as fertiliser.
Huntress lands her flip and spins around to fling out a bunch of seeds, the small beads crackling as they bounce atop the metal. Then they suddenly burst into thick, thorny bushes that immediately halt the advance of some shotgunners, a natural barbed wire. They go to flank around it, yet Huntress phases through unbothered, hands raised as her arrows lodge into their skulls.
She however suddenly leaps back inside the thicket as the guardian fires again, blasting the area before her. The soldiers close in with their weapons drawn, trying to spot her in the thick bush shrouding her. Just as one spots her slightly orange hair, she rockets up on a massive branch, a hand on her rising platform. Immediately thick branches shoot out from her wooden pole, piercing into all the soldier's guts and killing them instantly.
However the branches then rise into the air in level with the nymph, before promptly flinging their corpses in every direction. The nymph glares at the Citadel Guardian as it reaches for her with hands wide, her branches shooting for them. Wrapping them up, she yanks the giant hands to the ground, pinning them with the vines as she grunts in effort.
With its hands out of commission, the massive defender simply charges up its eyes laser again. Huntress smirks as she flips off her platform, landing smoothly right against the wall with a determined glare in her eyes. The laser roars through the air, and at the last second the nymph flips out of harm's way and lets it slam into the wall instead.
An explosion roars in the air as the metal wall breaks at the attack, crumbling down with a screech and a cloud of dust. Huntress instantly rushes to the other side, bounding through the burning hot rubble to rush back into the worm fight, scoping out the situation.
Ice Queen gives her a nod upon seeing her safe return while she rushes to reach Finn… wherever he could be, because the wood nymph definitely could not see him, and that's with her hunting eyes. She panics for a moment, then smirks, 'He's fine, he's just using the hiding tricks I taught him! There's a reason why he's my hunting partner, because he's like me, hard meat…'
The hero meanwhile was still gutting the queen worm alive, blood covering him as he chops and slices, slowly going upwards. He has no idea what he has hit so far, but it was definitely a lot, he's lost count of how many organs this beast was now missing. Finally he hits something hard, halting his advance as he stands in a pool of hot blood with a grimace.
He pulls his robot arm back, "Drill." He orders, and it swiftly transforms as he plunges into the hard flesh before him, swiftly digging through. Light suddenly bursts through, and the hero realised he had actually hit its shell and was now poking out of its head.
He glances about while caked in blood, when he hears a ear shattering scream, "FINN!"
He twists to discover Ice Queen swooping towards him, and he snaps his arms up and deactivates his drill. She grabs him and yanks him free from the wound in the worm queen as it squirms in pain, the duo swiftly flying away. The blue woman panics over her boyfriend, and upon seeing all the blood on him washes it with a load of melted ice, hunting for a wound.
When she finds nothing, she sighs in relief, then grits her teeth in anger as she heads towards Huntress as fast as she can, straining with her wounds, "What were you thinking!?" She screamed, gasping with a wince, "Ow… but in all seriousness, why were you inside of it!?" She demands, watching as a swarm of worms closed in on them.
He shrugs in her grasp, humming a muffled noise of uncertainty, "I thought it was the best plan, seeing as the armour was too thick for me to hit anything vital. I mean it worked! It's laying still and dying-" As he says this, his gaze drifts behind them, and spots the queen worm surging towards them, blood drooling out like a waterfall from its mouth and wounds.
He remains silent, then coughs, "... It's hurt, definitely hurt." Ice Queen scowls as she lands on the pipe, dropping off her knight before stumbling slightly. He catches her immediately, holding her safely against him before lifting her up bridal style.
She sighs in his arms, "You're an idiot. Don't do something like that again." She lectures with a stern stare.
The look she gave the hero was enough to make him march on as he hurried down the pipe to their wood nymph companion. He rushes before her as she immediately gives him a look over, panicking lightly before sighing at his passable health. Suddenly their pipe shakes violently, causing them to stumble and snap their heads behind them.
The snake-like creatures were swarming towards them, causing everyone to turn tails and run towards the hole in the wall. Ice Queen was smirking however, "My plan is working." Finn glances at her, causing her to explain, "Let's bring wormy girl here to the guardians, shall we?" Finn's eyes widen, then nods in understanding as they reach the hole in the wall.
Of course, it wasn't dead centre in their path, and Huntress made the diagonal leap first, landing on the other side. Directly in the soldiers' and the Citadel Guardian's aim. She unleashes her arrows into the guards as the giant tries swatting her, while Finn makes the leap with his precious cargo.
He pants as he charges with Ice Queen in his arms, the worms right behind him as the earth shakes in a familiar sense. Not a moment later the snake queen blasts through the rock wall, obliterating it and making it larger as it screeches up blood. Immediately all attention was on it and its minions as they swarm from the other side, our trio dashing away in the chaos.
The Citadel Guardian reaches for the queen of worms, which lunges at it the new massive threat. Its jaws spread wide while it screams a bloody cry, slamming into the giant and wrapping its spiky body around it. It chomps down on the goliath's head, mincing it in its maw as it becomes obliterated, causing the rest of the body to go limp. As its limbs flop uselessly by its side, the other Citadel Guardians begin to awaken, roaring as they jolt to life and turn their heads to their foe.
As they themselves swarm in with the lasers blasting so strong it blows chunks off the snake beast, Huntress and Finn carrying Ice Queen sprint towards a random worker's door. The blue woman groans as she glances at the duo, then the battle behind them, or more accurately, the citadel security force. She huffs, then in her now glowing hands forge two swords of ice with a grin, holding them close to her. They rush through the door and out of the guardian holding facility, immediately searching around for an area to hide in the corridor they've now ended up in.
The wood nymph swiftly spots the ladder to the engineering level again, and hurriedly the group make their way over. Huntress leaps up first, then aims her hands at the royal tucked in Finn's arms, using her cape to wrap vines around her. With a silent grunt, she lifts the woman up while Finn stands on watch, sword close to his chest defensively. Luckily, nothing comes to do battle with them, and the hero himself hurriedly climbs up the ladder.
They were in engineering tunnels again, and sigh as they rest, Finn inquisitively peering outside of an air vent. He discovers the Citadel Guardians grabbing the now heavily injured worm queen, and with powerful tugs ripping it apart. They drop the beast's torn up corpse to the floor as they move towards the hole, "Simpling Queen eliminated, destroying nest." It informs with a deep, robotic voice, Finn's eyebrow raising slightly, 'It's the same as the other security voice… are they all linked together with the rest of the citadel?'
He shakes his clingy curiosity free from his mind, and shuffles deeper with the other two in case they spot him through the vent. He immediately checks up on them, hunting for some wounds they might have suffered, but the women simply push the hero back with smirks, Huntress adding softly, "We're fine, there's no need to crowd us."
He blushes, then smirks as he whispers back, "I see, so you don't want to cuddle then." They immediately tug him back. He shakes his head as he gets comfortable next to them, though the watcher was curiously prodding and analysing the royal's wounds.
Ice Queen sighs as she gently pushes her hands away, "It's fine, I remember being shot in the past, and I've walked them off in the past." She sighs and leans back, "We just need strong magic to heal me fully, like some wishing magic."
Finn nods, then glances at the two ice blades in her hands, "Why have you got them?" He inquires, pointing at them as they make sure to keep their voice down. It sounds like the chaos outside was calming down. They'll be able to slip away soon.
She smirks, handing one of them to Huntress as she holds it slight confusion, not that her expressionless expression shows it. Good thing Finn can read her like a book by now. Ice Queen stares at Finn with pleading eyes, "We can't use magic anymore, nor can we really damage stuff either apparently. The more we do either of those, the more security will swarm us… and we'll have another tunnel situation…" She explains, gesturing to her wounds, "... And I worry it isn't going to be me next time."
Her pained explanation brings a concerned frown to Finn's face as he plants a hand on her shoulder, "I know, but they'll likely have cameras anyways. A fight is definitely going to happen, heck I won't be surprised if they swarm up here in any moment now."
She nods her head, "I know, but I was thinking about how I could keep the risk down to a minimum… so I made these." She gestures to the pale blue blades, "We can swing these without using magic, make it harder for them to track us since they don't give off any magic signature." She stares pleadingly into his eyes, gazing deep into his soul, "However, we've honestly no experience with them. Can you teach us? Can you show us how to swing a sword?"
Finn blinks, then glances about, "Well… maybe, I mean, this isn't the best place to learn: no time, low amount room, enemies just outside…" As if to punctuate his point, a group rushes underneath him, their hurried footsteps heard as they rush to fight the last of the worms. "... But I won't leave you two defenceless." He reaches around back and pulls his bow off his back, handing it to Huntress, "Remember, you can't summon your arrows back to you, you're going to have to pick them up manually."
She smirks as she grabs it, "How do you think I did it before I got my magic?" She swiftly puts it on her own back, before rising with her newly acquired blade, "So, bear, show us how to swipe with your claws." With that, he begins their lessons with the adjusting and fixing of their stances, making sure the women were in the correct position, before showing them how to thrust with a blade. It gave them something to do while they waited for security to stop running around in the corridors beneath them at least.
Hekate meanwhile hums as she looks at the report given to her. There were intruders to her newly acquired prison. Pictures snapped from the security machine reveals the boy, the one who broke it last time, and the one who tried to stop her from bringing in Martin. She huffs, "Man that kid can be a pest… he better not die, there's some grand plans for him that he needs to fulfilled." She smirks, "I can't kill him, but it's the best if we keep him in our custody until it's time for our plan." With that, she sends an order to the human war machine for the hero's capture. And it begins to produce the ultimate human hunting machine.
Back in AAA however, a different type of war machine was on the march, heading to the land where the fire kingdom would be if it existed in AAA. Robo Gumball needed more land for more factories to make more of his mechanical warriors, so he may claim AAA for his people and for his beloved, Fionna! Steadily, AAA was on the brink of an invasion, and its hero was in a kingdom of ice as she hunkers down in preparation for the metal storm.
Chapter end
There we go, they're through the pipes and hive now, though unfortunately no more AAA troubles were shown today.
Finally however! We finally get Finn teaching Huntress (and Ice Queen) how to swing a sword! I hinted/said it would happen way back then, but I've only now just got over to it, simply because it fit best at this moment rather than earlier. I'll likely have to do a 'learn on the job' seeing their situation, but I think the ladies are hard enough to pull it off, especially with Finn watching over them.
We also now know a little more about Huntress's past... And that's all I'm saying for now. Her backstory is related to whole arc in the future.
For those who don't know, no, the Fire Kingdom doesn't exist in AAA (that's actually canon). Flame Prince lives some caves with giant fire cats.
I'm sorry this chapter took longer than usual despite nothing interesting happening, my health worsened a bit, the acid had travelled up my throat and caused heartburn as they melted my throat. It was painful but nothing major (hence why I didn't stop writing), but it was enough to slow me down for a few days.
Review response:
Book of Eli, on FF, chapter 50:
*Wished to be private*
fresiak, on ao3, Chapter 50:
The map is detailed to show them basic cubes, rectangles, and spheres that represents rooms and corridors, and what's inside of them. In all honesty, it would look like a spider web mess in reality, but this is cartoon/story logic XD The major, large gas and wire lines are also displayed since they're large enough, tnough not small wires or it would make the map unreadable. The reason why Huntress is inside the pipe is because it goes through the wall and into the next room, where she can anger a Citadel Guardian in destroying the wall to let the other two through. They're not going through the main entrance into the room due to security knowing they exist and the main entrance looking heavily defendable, not wanting to risk it or waste time fighting when Martin's on a clock.