"Spread out!" Yeyin bellowed as the group of kainde rushed them.
All of them thanked the gods as they had rushed through the passages into the large chamber Ky'gall and Rul'wan had come from before. The large hemispherical room had plenty of space in which to maneuver, along with the decorations and covered doorways, they had much more to use to avoid their larger attacker, but they were still left with the more immediate problem of her escort.
The warriors were on them immediately, shrieking with fangs, claws and tails bared. Yeyin held back with his combi-stick, trying to give his brothers and companions a bit more time and was amazed at how much easier these warriors seemed to fall before him than his first kill, in his musing he barely noticed the praetorian bearing down on him, and he manage to dive and roll out of the way, just in time to evade the large hand that swiped at him.
Regaining his footing his stowed his spear for the moment and caught back up with his companions, and soon enough all eight were standing with their backs against the stone columns that held up the archways in front of each doorway.
"Getting pretty sporty now, huh?" Rul'wan called from somewhere down the line, a mad laugh threading through his words.
The giant creature shrieked and reached into one of the doorways and those in danger shifted in the safer directions before Quall called out.
"So what now? Do we run for it? There's a bunch of doorways here where we can exit" he said before the Praetorian moved to a different doorway to attack and they moved again.
This time Rutaroo spoke up saying "We can't risk splitting up again, these things know we're here now and on our own they can swamp us"
Increasingly more frustrated, the praetorian switched doorways again, and once again they shifted. This time Rutaroo, in a fit of boldness, ran out from his cover and swiftly up the arm that had been reaching in and using one of his long knives, ran down the back, slashing at the open spots as he ran back down the tail and into another doorway.
"So if we take her out, we can stick together and work our way out of here!" he yelled
The creature howled and shrieked as it bled from Rutaroos strikes.
"Alright let's do it!" Hi'tashi said running out and using his cutting disc in hand, slashed at the belly of the moving beast.
Soon after Del shot out and managed a quick stab at the belly before ducking back in again. All of them repeated the same attacking pattern, much like they had with dragon, except this time with the extra three males helping this time, however the praetorian was a far different beast, she was swifter in her reactions, and all 8 had several near misses at her claws and barbed tail.
It seemed that they were going to accomplish their goal when suddenly their quarry just disappeared from sight.
It was a long, tense set of moments before they all walked out, crouched low and weapons ready, to see what had just happened, when a huge chunk of rock came crashing down. They all had been missed but looked up to see the praetorian had used the lattice of crisscrossing walkways to climb up and was now hissing down at them menacing them to stay away.
Other than the slab of stone, nothing more came down at them, and all eight males looked up, still a bit pumped up and rather confused.
"Why's she staying up there, away from us?" Yeyin asked, his chest and shoulders heaving as he fought to calm his racing heart
"I don't know, she's certainly not attacking, she's just keeping her eyes on us" Hi'tashi said slowly walking around the group, the praetorian followed him as he moved, turning her head snarling at him.
"Why though? These things never back off, she should be trying to kill us! Instead she's up there, she's staying away…almost like she's afraid" Ky'gall said slowly, thinking as he spoke
"She's turning into a queen!" Rutaroo said excitedly
"How can you tell?" Rul'wan said, looking back and forth between his brother and their quarry.
"Look at her crest, it's becoming broader at the top, and she's big for a praetorian, she's transforming into a queen, in a few more days, she'll start laying eggs, she's just getting the food, that's also why there are less warriors and drones, think about it" Rutaroo added as he walked towards a collapsed section of walkway and started to climb up before scaling the walls to the next closest one.
"What the hell do you think you're doing!?" Yeyin barked as he watched his brother climb ever higher.
"I'm finishing what we started, I don't know about you guys but I'm not letting that bitch start a nest and spread more hell, now if you want to stay down there fine, but don't bitch to me because you lost your balls somewhere before here" he said with a grunt as he started climbing the next section of the wall.
As the others started debating their options, Maka'dan began climbing after the striped male calling behind him "I'm not letting him say my balls dropped off! Let's get some!"
Yeyin shook his head before he too began to climb up and not soon after the rest followed, all of them chose different routes, not leaving any area more open for the praetorians to escape than they could manage, and soon they all began ascending much more steadily and swiftly as they got the hang of climbing up the stone walkways..
The praetorian roared angrily and climbed higher into the next few levels, hissing down occasionally at her pursuers.
Long minutes passed and they were still climbing higher and higher, every time they approached close to the praetorian, she only climbed higher than before, the floor was far beneath them now, and any slip would now lead to a lethal fall if they didn't land on any of the closer walkways beneath them.. Yeyin found himself glancing down before looking over and seeing Rutaroo and barked out "If I die from this, I'm going to kick your sorry ass!"
Rutaroo gave an insane laugh at his brother before adding "Quit your bitching! This the sorta thing legends get made from!" before he looked up and seeing the Praetorian and called to the group "She's stopped climbing"
Quall swung to one of the sides and looked at the snarling beast yelling "No c'jit idiot, we're at the very pauking top!"
Hi'tashi pulled out his cutting disc "Well it's now or never, you guys ready for this?" he looked around, all nodded and Ky'gall barked "Go for it!"
Like that the green skinned male threw the razor sharp homing disc and as it sliced through the ankle of the praetorian, she shrieked and began to slip, right as Ky'gall took a chunk of loose rock from the wall, and heaved it at the beast, catching her in the wide crested head, knocking her off balance and causing her to fall.
Time seemed to slow as they descended to the walkways to see the maddened creature flail angrily before its back crashed onto a walkway, as she started to roll off, she grabbed at it and hauled herself back up, her clawed fingertips gouging into the stone.
As she did, she hissed and locked her sights on a Hi'tashi and began climbing towards him. The yellow eyes went wide behind the mask as he saw the enormous kainde, rapidly scaling the walls right towards him. He began running down the closest walkway and trying to look for a way out only to see the closest one was nearly fifty feet below him.
Turning back he saw the massive she-beast turn its head to snarl at him before pulling itself up onto the same walkway as him and just before it lunged for him, he jumped off into space, aiming for the other walkway, over 15 meters beneath him; time slowed again until he felt his feet make contact with the stone and he remembered to tuck and roll at the last second. However he rolled right off the edge and quickly grabbed for the stone.
While Hi'tashi struggled, Rutaroo was moving like smoke in the air, the others, even his brothers, were amazed at how fluidly he moved across the walls. He landed on the walkway with the mad beast and slashed at the bulging muscle of the thigh, opening up the leg.
Shrieking it turned to swing at him, but her size and injuries were working against her now, and by the time she had turned around completely, he was already out of range, moving back down the walkway, leading her after him. Once he reached the end, he leapt, fearlessly, into the air and grabbed at the wall, sliding a bit before effortlessly starting to crawl and swing fluidly again.
Ky'gall walked next to Yeyin, his arm blade ready as he spoke "He's something else isn't he?" marveling at his striped brothers skill. Yeyin nodded as he spoke "He's in his element, now come on, we got to help him, go to the other end and flank the bitch when she follows him down, draw her away if you can, go!" He slapped Ky'gall on the shoulder before moving to the other end and started to climb again, slowly but surely, hoping to get a possible top down shot on the beast.
Sure enough the maddened creature followed the striped yautja as he descended to a lower walkway beneath the one Yeyin was now standing on. The 'princess' as Rutaroo was now beginning to think of her, came down on the walkway with a shuddering 'thud!' and snarled low in her throat as she slowly advanced toward him. Rutaroo kept one eye on her as he slowly backpedaled and the other on the dark shape of his brother as she walked right under him. Yeyin pulled his ceremonial knife and switched his spear to his off hand.
"I must be pauking crazy!" he yelled aloud before jumping down onto the back of the crest and after stabbing with his blade as deeply into the thickest part he could , grabbed the handle with both hands in a death grip, then rolled to the side of the head, all in an instant.
The effect was immediate and made one understand what the black skinned male had meant before he had jumped down. The sudden shift in balance and over a quarter ton of extra weight, caused the Praetorians head to lurch down at an angle and off into the void. As her body followed and Yeyin managed to withdraw his knife and catch the ledge as the kainde went over the side, shrieking as she crashed headfirst into the nearest walkway, before rolling off and falling again another twenty some feet before crashing into the next walkway, and finally scrabbling back onto her feet.
Del came up behind Yeyin still not believing what he had just seen as he slapped the big male on the back "You're one crazy son of bitch, you know that?!" he laughed.
Yeyin gently thumped the top of Dels head saying "Hey! Watch what you say about my mother" he laughed before patting both Del and Rutaroo on the back "Come on, let's get back down there, we can't let her get away again"
. . . . . . .
Hi'tashi meanwhile had finally gotten himself back on a walkway and was about to get back in the fight when he saw something written over the doorway nearest to him. Quickly , he ran in and found a sight he hadn't expected to see. Right in front of him, was the ceremonial sarcophagus used to contain the eight plasma casters.
They were placed in the pyramid originally as the weapon for youngbloods to use, to significantly even the odds in their favor, however the sarcophagus never stayed in the same place, it was programmed to move to different sections of the pyramid for each hunt. Hi'tashi had by sheer luck found the spot it was at for this hunt.
He was even happier with what he found alongside the plasma casters inside the stone container. Along with the eight energy cannons, were a spear gun, several ceremonial swords, a glaive, and several older style razor whips.
Quickly he programmed his own plasma caster, before prepping and loading the spear gun, and then set about loading his mesh bag full of the weapons before getting back outside as fast as he could and began scaling the walls back to his brothers and friends.
. . . . . . .
The praetorian had become enraged and furious upon the continued assault from her tormentors and was now becoming more and more bold in her attacks, caring less about her safety and more about killing the yautja around her. Knowing on some basic instinctive level in her savage consciousness that they were not going to stop until she was dead, she now was intent on inflicting as much damage as possible upon any once they were close enough for her to do so. However along with her increased size, came increased intelligence, and she was vastly more cunning than her warrior brethren.
All eight had since descended beneath her, feeling it was safer than having some above and below, also it offered the advantage of her refusing to descend, not daring to have more damage done to her. However they were also much more at risk than before, and she swiped out with her claws and tail whenever they approached.
They were all feeling stuck when suddenly a loud blast was heard and a white-blue bolt of plasma rocketed up and blew out the walkway beneath her. She screeched in shock and rage as she fell into open space once again, angrily flailing with all her limbs and tail for a hand hold to right herself.
All seven looked down to see Hi'tashi had sent a plasma bolt up before he began climbing once again, laden down with his burden. All of them began descending and converging on him before stopping at and gazing skyward upon hearing a gut wrenching sound.
The stone sections at either end of the walkway that had been shot, were cracking and crumbling, before finally separating from their wall sections entirely, and began falling down. The two sections crashed into other walkways with thunderous impacts before breaking into smaller, but still massive chunks of stone.
"GET TO THE WALLS!" Ky'gall roared out as a Ner'uda sized chunk hurtled down towards him, and he felt the breeze of cool air brush against his skin as it barely missed him. All of them, including Hi'tashi and even the Praetorian retreated to the edges of their walkways, as the colossal pieces of stone rained down. Once they had stopped an even bigger problem quickly became apparent. Hi'tashi was completely on the other side of the room, away from all the others. The praetorian noticed as well and began making her over to the tall green male.
"GUYS, CATCH!" He called out before cinching his mesh bag closed and began spinning with it in his grip, just like a hammer thrower. He gave an enormous surge of strength before tossing it up through the clearest span of space he could manage.
Yeyin and the rest had been working their way over to him as soon as they could when they heard the call. They watched first in fascination as the bag of weapons sailed through the air, and then in horror as the massive spiked tail of the praetorian shot up. Seconds seemed to stretch out with agonizing slowness, as they watched the bag get shredded, and the various weapons spewed out and scattered in separate paths in the air.
All seven scrambled to grab what they could, Yeyin had gotten the glaive, Rul'wan had managed to grab two razor whips, Rutaroo had gotten one of the blades, but only Del and Ky'gall managed to get plasma casters, the rest had fallen out of reach.
Hi'tashi was crestfallen upon seeing this and tried to think of some way to aid them again, when the same spiked tail suddenly shot through the air at him. He barely ducked in time but felt the barb shred his shoulder mount, and the flesh of his deltoid underneath it, and sure enough he caught a brief sight of his plasma caster falling down to the far distant floor.
Leaping he grabbed onto the wall before starting to clamber to one side, but his movements were slower now with his right shoulder gaping and bleeding. Some sixth sense suddenly told him to pull back and he thanked Paya he had; the massive barb had buried itself in the space of wall he had just been about to move to, coming so close that as it wrenched itself free, some of the razor sharp edges sliced into the exposed skin of his under arm.
He gasped and tried to move the other way but the same thing happened again. He flattened himself against the wall spread eagle and saw the massive and bloodied form of the praetorian come down on the same walkway he had been on moments ago. Her movements were slow, one could sense her confidence that she had a sure kill.
He brought up his spear gun, firing it one handed, quickly landing several shots into the big body, but the projectiles only stuck in the thick armored plates that covered the hide of the creature. She hissed and pulled her tail back, ready to impale her trapped quarry, he tried to fire more spears, anything to delay her, even for a few more seconds, but gun jammed and as he slipped trying to keep his balance, and dropped it into the empty air beneath him.
Looking back up through his mask the tall green male snarled, certain his end was at hand, he was not going to let her see him cower in death. He roared out like thunder, even through his mask the sound exploded out and rang out into the space, echoing around.
The praetorian paused at this sudden outburst, as if curious before suddenly readying herself again was about to strike when suddenly another roar rang out behind her.
"NOOOOOOOOOOO!" Rutaroo yelled as he plummeted down to the kainde from almost 30 meters above. The snarling beast turned just as the striped male landed a diving kick straight into her snarling maw, his feet smashing several black diamond like teeth straight out of her mouth.
His kick along with his impact once again knocked her down and she began to fall, but this time she grabbed the striped male and pulled him down as she fell. The others could only watch in helpless terror as they both fell, still locked in contact.
Rutaroo had to use every last ounce of his reflex and skill as he dodged her attacks, scrambled around the massive body to avoid being squashed as she collided onto walkways, and attacked in return when he could, forcing her limbs or head in the direction to smash into more stone, but he could not get his leg out of the monsters mouth quick enough, and felt his shin snap, as she slammed her main jaws shut on it.
What felt like hours, was only mere moments until both eventually crashed back down onto the hard stone floor. Both suffered grievous injuries, her one leg was completely broken and half her tail had been ripped away, his leg was broken in at least two places from what he could tell, and his right arm had bones sticking out of it. His mask was also cracked and barely functioning.
Somehow both of them managed to stand and he looked at her, ready for her to kill him. To his surprise she simply turned away from him and began to ascend back into the labyrinth of spanning walkways and he quickly pieced together why. A huge gaping holein the wall, was half way between the ground and the closest of the descending males, she had her escape route, and was slowly but surely making her way to it.
Picking up one of the fallen plasma cannons, he affixed it to his still functioning mount before roaring out "ANYONE WHO CAN, SHOOT HER FEET OUT FROM UNDER HER!"
A response came down "THAT COULD KILL YOU!"
"DON'T LET HER PAUKING ESCAPE, I DON'T CARE WHAT IT TAKES BRING THAT BITCH DOWN AND LET ME GET THE KILLING SHOT, NOW DO IT!" he bellowed.
All of them exchanged glances before Ky'gall looked at Yeyin who nodded "DO IT, SHOOT HER!"
Ky'gall waited until the right moment and let his bolt fly. As hoped, the section gave and she fell down, this time the space was clear, and she fell straight down, right to the waiting form of Rutaroo. His cannon barrel was glowing brighter and brighter as he overcharged the bolt in it, not wanting to miss this chance.
Looking up he grinned as he saw go spread eagle, trying to slow her descent and unwittingly provided him with the broadest target he could ask for.
He could only think of one thing as he saw the mangled and wounded beast plummeting right down at him and the overcharged bolt was loosed and sped straight for her.
"You are one ugly mother pauker"