"Hela, stop!" Korra yelled and thrust her arm out, a wall of dirt blocking the death goddess. The kid backed up quick but Hela turned to Korra, fixing her with a dark look. "You can't just kill him," Korra said quickly. "We have no idea who he is."
"He appeared from the shadows with a sword of pure death. Those are mine alone to wield. The boy must die for that."
"Lay off, psycho!" the kid replied. At that point, the others arrived on the scene, ready to face off against Hela. "And it's just made of Stygian iron, not death."
At his voice, Diana turned and her eyes widened in recognition. "Nico? You're back!"
The kid, Nico, turned as well. "Oh, hey Diana. Why you traveling with Death Queen over there?"
"Wait, you two know each other?" Korra asked.
"We met each other after we arrived here, stumbling into one another," Diana replied. "We made our way until we spotted the city and Nico decided to check it out first, disappearing into the shadows."
Korra blinked. "Ok, what?"
"I can walk through shadows," the kid replied. "They're all like doorways to me. It's called Shadow Travel. So I just entered darkness of one of the wrecks and then entered a shadow in the city, scouting it out. Then I came to report back when thorn lady over there attacked."
"You stepped in front of me wielding a sword of death energy," Hela sniffed. "You got off easy."
"Death energy?" Liza questioned.
"What did you learn Nico?" Diana asked.
He hissed, making Korra feel like whatever he had seen wasn't good. "Well, there's not really any good news. There's…interesting news. And then maybe bad news, wasn't able to tell for now."
"What's that mean?" Ben asked.
Nico blinked at him and then nodded, accepting it. He pursed his lips, seemingly trying to think of the best way to say what he was about to say. "The interesting news would be that there are other people there. No citizens, far as I can tell. They entered from outside. Far as I can tell, city's been abandoned for years. Well, almost anyway."
The way he said that and the way he looked made Korra want to shiver. "What does that mean?"
Nico breathed out. "It means that something else decided to live there. Or a lot of somethings. It doesn't look like they stayed but…well their homes were old and-"
"Nico!" Diana interrupted. "We don't what you're talking about. Just tell us."
"Right, sorry. I found webs," he said. "Like, spider-webs."
Korra blinked and then turned, a little confused. She saw the others with similar expressions. Ben was frowning at Nico while Liza seemed a little on edge but also had a confused look. Hela was completely uninterested in the conversation at this point, looking over at the city like she was ready to walk towards it. Or destroy it. It was hard to tell with her.
"Spider-webs?" Diana checked.
"Yeah. The spiders sort of took over the city. They're gone now cause I couldn't spot any but they left their webs. And they're not too frayed so I'm guessing they left pretty recently."
"Wait, sorry, back up," Korra stopped him. "When you say spiders, you mean the small little things that hide in corners?"
Nico snorted. "Don't know about small. Those webs are huge so I'm guessing their creators are just as big."
"But you didn't see any?" Diana checked and he shook his head. "Very well, they may have just wandered off. Not our problem right now. We go into the city and hopefully find some clue about this place and-" she stopped and looked over. "Where's Hela?"
They all whirled around and saw the woman gone. And Korra didn't even need to guess where she had gone. "Don't think she's much of a conversationalist."
"Come on, let's find her before she causes more trouble," Diana sighed.
There was a sudden screech from up ahead as well as several tremors through the ground. This was followed by a familiar voice yelling, "DIE YOU HIDEOUS ABOMINATION!"
"Think we might be too late," Ben grumbled and they all started running.
Korra twisted the wind around her, forming an airball beneath her which she used to speed around the others and race ahead past the other shipwrecks, heading for the source of the noise. She could feel the earth tremors below her and hear the screeches as well as Hela's curses and boasts, proclaiming all the many graphic and disgusting ways she would kill whatever was there. Korra put some more oomph into her ball and sped forward as fast as she could.
And then she rounded the corner and felt her concentration falter as she saw what Hela was fighting. It screeched again, the sound reverberating around the area. It had enormous tentacles, each one swinging around wildly trying to grab hold of Hela who leapt nimbly away from each one, slashing them whenever she could and occasionally chopping one off. The creature seemed to have a head, or at least a large mouth that was partly buried in the sand, a large crustaceous shell around it. There were rows and rows of teeth as far as Korra could see inside, lining a tunnel straight to hell.
"Do you know who I am, beast?" Hela cried out, snapping off another tentacle while dodging two more. "I am the Goddess of Death, the rightful heir to the throne of Asgard. I have trampled armies and slain horrors far greater than you. You are no match!"
The creature screeched in response, slamming a particularly large tentacle down on the ground, causing a wave of sand to rise up and a tremor to shake the earth.
"What in the name of Galactus is that thing?" Ben asked, arriving on the scene.
"Shrimpzilla!" Nico gasped.
"You know this thing?" Korra asked.
"Oh no, just looks kind of like Shrimpzilla. Except the tentacles are bigger. And it's in the sand, not the sea. And it doesn't seem to have claws." He then noticed much of it was still buried in the sand. "Least I hope it doesn't."
"Whatever it is, it will fall," Diana promised, raising her sword and preparing to charge.
"Wait, hold on," Liza stopped her. "Right now, it's focused on death queen over there. So why not let it?"
"Let it what, kill her kid?" Ben checked.
"Or she kills it, whatever. She seems to be handling herself just fine. So let's just let them fight it out and just walk around them."
"No," Diana said firmly. "I will not let anyone die alone in combat, not even Hela. It is my duty to fight monsters such as this. And I have handled worse." She then charged forward, leaping into several tentacles and carving a path through them.
"Well, I'm not fighting," Liza crossed her arms. "My teacher always taught me to fight as a last resort. Better to sneak around them. And this is no-"
She was interrupted when a smaller tentacle ripped out of the ground by her feet and wrapped tightly around her leg. She yelped in shock as it yanked her down, pulling her into the sand.
"Whoa!" Ben lunged forward, grabbing hold of her around the waist and holding her firm. "Hang on kid, I got ya."
But she kept slipping as the tentacle just pulled harder. Liza reached for her sword but couldn't get a good grip on it. "Will one of you cut the damn thing?" she cried out.
"On it!" Nico said, crouching down and swinging his blade at the tentacle and cutting through it easily. A little too easily. As Korra watched, she could almost swear the sword didn't just cut through, but it also absorbed the tentacle. When she looked down at the severed piece, the cut part seemed dead, like decomposed. She shivered a little but didn't have long to dwell on it as the creature let loose its loudest screech yet and a bunch of tentacles shot out towards them. Korra dodged out of the way just in time but the others weren't so lucky, Ben, Liza, and Nico all getting grabbed and yanked across the ground.
"Gah!" Ben roared and slammed his fists into the sand, trying to find something to grab hold of but all he did was create large gouges in the sand.
"Hold on!" Korra yelled, running forward. She shot out with her arms, sending fireballs streaming at the tentacles but the damn things kept moving, the fire only hitting a few of them and none of them doing too much damage. But it did get the creature's attention, several more tentacles shooting out from the sand towards her. "Oh crap!" she cried and spun away, narrowly missing one of the tentacles. She tried to earthbend but there was only sand and she wasn't the best at bending that just yet. And firebending didn't seem to affect the creature. Waterbending and airbending didn't seem like they would help too much here. So what else could she do?
"RAHHHHH!" Hela screamed as she flew overhead, crashing into debris and sending metal flying everywhere. "You will die horribly for that!"
Korra stared down at a metal fragment at her feet. Metal. Metal!
She was so dumb! The answer was literally all around her. But she didn't have time to dwell on it. Acting fast, she spun her hands around and started bending the metal, summoning it to her aid. The metal responded, circling around her as she guided it. Then she thrust forward and the metal shot through the air, slamming into the tentacles and embedding in the flesh.
The creature let out a roar and whipped its tentacles around but did drop the others before they could reach its mouth. Ben slumped for a second before rising again, rubbing one of his fists into the other as he did. "Alright beastie," he growled, glaring at the thing. "You ready to get clobbered?" He didn't wait for a response, leaping into the air and smashing down onto the beast's outer shell, punching hard into it in an attempt to break it.
Korra ducked as a tentacle came her way, sending more metal against it. "We need to get out of here," she called out.
"Never!" Hela yelled, charging forward, swords in hand. "Surrender is not an option! That is for cowards. I will slice that monster open and drown it in its own blood!"
"Lady, you need serious help," Nico said, cutting a tentacle coming his way.
Hela didn't respond, sending a spear of dark stone hurtling into the beast's mouth. It didn't seem to do much to hurt it but the creature did send two more larger tentacles her way that she was forced to dodge.
Korra bent some metal around two tentacles in the air, melding them together and binding the tentacles together. But for every one any of them put down, it was like three more popped up. Nico and Liza stood back to back, fending off as many of the things as they could. Diana was charging straight for the mouth but wasn't making much headway, too many of the tentacles pressing against her. Ben was still atop the beast, smashing down at it but he also wasn't making much progress from what it looked like. And Hela…well she was certainly getting most of the creature's attention with nearly a dozen tentacles lashing out at her at a time. She was scything through them as if they were stalks of wheat, but they just kept coming back for more.
"How many damn tentacles does this thing even have?" Liza complained, cutting down another one.
Korra had no idea but she did know that they couldn't keep this up forever. They were barely affecting the creature while it was constantly on the attack. Eventually someone would slip up. Their only choice was really to retreat, get as far away from the thing as possible. She glanced towards the city and wondered if it would follow them inside. Maybe, maybe not but it seemed like their best bet at the moment.
But before she could relay any of this to the others, she felt it. A slight rumble through the earth. And then another, much bigger this time. If she wasn't trained as an earthbender, she wouldn't have felt it. She barely did with all the sand in the way, but it was there.
The sand started to shift before sliding past her feet. She slowly turned her head, watching more and more sand fall away as a large mound of it rose up several yards away. She gaped for a second, just watching, as something large rose from the sand, something with a thick shell and tentacles swarming beneath it.
"Oh, great," Korra muttered, watching the sand slide off the shell like waterfalls. "There are two of them."
But she quickly had to bite those words as she then saw three more mounds rising up around the area, each another shell-like figure with tentacles rising from the sand beneath them.
"Oh, what in Hades!" Nico exclaimed. "There are five of them?"
"Fantastic!" Hela grinned with relish. "Bring it all on. It will make my victory all the sweeter."
But Korra was watching closely and she noticed it before any of the others. "It isn't five," she told them with widening horror, seeing each shell placed an equal distance from the others, all forming a circle in the sand. "They're all the same creature."
"This thing has five mouths?" Liza asked, incredulous. "Well, that's actually not the most horrifying thing I've seen."
"Uh, guys?" Ben called down to them, still atop the first shell. "You all seeing that?"
They turned to see what he was pointing that and Korra felt her heart falter as the ground in front of all the different shells started to writhe and pulse.
"Oh this is really not going to be good," Liza muttered.
The outer shells rose higher from the ground and then the sand between them began to slide forward, all coalescing in the middle. Korra dug herself in but she saw with wide eyes that the very ground was beginning to tip, forming a pit. And in the center of it, something was beginning to emerge. Something Korra was sure she did not want to fall into.
"Run!" she yelled, making for the edge of the pit, scrambling up the rapidly rising sands. She saw Liza and Nico moving beside her. She couldn't see Diana anywhere or Ben who had vanished from the top of the shell. And Hela…
…was attacking the creature head-on.
"What are you doing?" Korra cried to her but Hela ignored her, still charging right down the sides of the pit to the creature. Korra shook her head. If the so-called goddess of death wanted to die, that was her deal. Korra had other problems to worry about. She climbed up as fast as she could, trying to keep her hold as the sand flowed past her. Nico and Liza were still with her but they were also struggling, each step harder than the last. The sides were getting steeper and steeper and Korra chanced a glance back, gulping as she saw the maw in the center of the pit, one that seemed to lead to darkness as well as a whole lot of teeth.
"Come on, keep going!" she said.
"What do you think we're doing?" Liza snapped back.
Korra didn't bother replying, just kept trudging her way up. She tried to stabilize the sand, bend it to her will, but she still found it just outside her control. She should have made more time to learn sandbending. Now she was paying the price. Gah, if Tenzin were here he would give her such a lecture right now.
Korra gritted her teeth and kept going. She wasn't dying now. She refused to die on some strange world in the gullet of some sand monster. She was going to see Asami and all the others again. She would make it through this. Because she was the Avatar.
But even she could see that they weren't going to make it. The ground was rising up too fast, each second that passed making it harder not to slip and slide. And the shells were still too far away. Korra grimaced. She didn't know if this would work but now was the only time to know for sure.
"Hang on guys!" she called and then spun her hands around, tossing her up in the air slightly, the winds swirling around her feet until they formed a ball. She them zoomed over to Nico and Liza.
"What the-" Nico started, seeing her coming.
"Grab on!" she yelled at them both. She had to keep concentrating on the airball so she wouldn't be able to grab them herself. Thankfully, they got the message and grabbed hold of her arms as she passed. She grunted as they attached themselves to her, their combined weight dragging her down a little. She'd never had to carry people while on an airball before and she was pretty sure she never wanted to again. She staggered a bit midair but managed to right herself. Nico and Liza both dangled off her arms, their feet scarping across the sand, but they still held on diligently.
Korra continued to wobble her way up the side of the ever-deepening pit, but still keeping steady. She saw the edge of the pit straight ahead and made straight for it.
Which is, of course, when everything went wrong as dozens of tentacles sprang from the sand, writhing in the air before shooting right at them.
"Oh come on!" Korra cried out, spinning wildly in an attempt to avoid them. Nico and Liza both yelped as she turned and twisted each tentacle but still held on tightly. Korra winced at their grips but pushed past it. She forced them all back down the pit to avoid the tentacles but the things just kept following, chasing them further in.
"Ok, got any other tricks up your sleeve?" Liza cried out, slashing away at a tentacle getting too close.
"Just one," Korra shot back. "Hang on tight!"
"I am hanging on tight!"
"Well, hang on tighter." Korra gritted her teeth and, just as the tentacles converged on them, Korra shot her arms down and loosed an emormous burst of flames from both fists sending them all shooting into the air.
"Whoa!" Nico cried out.
Korra grimaced. The last time she'd done this had been in her last battle with Zaheer while she was in the Avatar State. She didn't know if she could keep this up for long. But she didn't need to as she was already moving right toward the edge. All she needed was a few more-
She jolted midair, something holding her fast. She whipped around and saw a long tentacle had wrapped around her leg. She grunted and tried to wriggle out of it but the thing stayed. She tried moving her fist over it to burn it off but the flames still had no effect, the thing still trying to pull her back.
"Liza, cut the damn thing off!"
"On it," Liza replied, swinging her sword at it. But as she did, the tentacle twisted its body out of the way. Liza grimaced and tried again but the tentacle kept twisting aside to avoid the blade. Nico tried as well but had the same luck. And all the while, it still remained attached to Korra's leg, constantly yanking her backwards.
"I can't cut it without cutting your leg off," Liza said.
"Damn it!" Korra put more fire into her fists, increasing the thrust but she only moved a few more inches. She could barely feel her leg anymore with how tight the tentacle was holding on. She tried to force some fire into her feet but they still had no effect on the tentacle and still gave her barely any headway. She could now see more tentacles shooting up to entangle her as well and drag her back to the yawning pit below.
Korra desperately searched for the others and spotted Diana and Ben below but they were completely surrounded, a veritable sea of tentacles swarming over them, the two barely holding their own. And Hela was still unaccounted for after charging into the creature's maw.
"Korra, I have an idea," Nico shouted up at her.
"Oh yeah, what is it?"
"You need to let it swallow us."
Korra blinked. "Yeah, I don't like that plan."
"Yeah let's try something else," Liza added.
"No, trust me," Nico said.
"Why would we let it swallow us?" Korra grunted, still pushing out to keep them aloft but it wasn't going to work for long. She was running out of energy fast, the fire burning through it. She had minutes left if not seconds. Actually, probably just seconds.
"I can shadow travel us out of here, but I need shadows," he replied. "And the only ones that we can get to are down there," he pointed right down at the hole in the center of the pit, the one with all the teeth in the middle. "So unless you have any better ideas…"
Unfortunately, Korra didn't. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't break free and she couldn't think of anything else she could do right now. Nico's plan was literally the only one they had. And that was really bad.
"Well," Liza muttered, raising her sword, "let's make sure to take that filth with us if we go."
"That's one way to look at it," Korra muttered. She then looked right at Nico. "Are you sure you can
do this?"
Nico looked her back dead in the eye. "I'm sure," he replied.
Korra nodded and took a deep breath. Asami, she thought, and then let go.
She kept the image of Asami's smile in her mind as the tentacle whipped them back and down before throwing them down directly into the pit. Korra could only watch as the gaping hole came right for them, growing larger and larger with slavering teeth all the way down.
"Nico?" she asked.
"Wait…"
They were now right above it, flying straight into it and she had to physically restrain herself from bending.
"Nico?"
"Wait…"
They flew right into the maw into the darkness inside, shooting right through the beast's gullet and Korra could now just make out something at the bottom, something that looked a lot like stomach juices.
"Nico!" she yelled, more panic in her voice.
"Wait…"
Korra's eyes shot wide as the stomach fluids got bigger and bigger, rising to claim them all.
"NICO!"
"Now!" he yelled, grabbing them tight and Korra suddenly felt them vanish into the shadows.
For a second, all she was pure darkness, like every light in the world had suddenly been put out. She felt cold chills run up her spine that made her shiver and heard strange voices that she couldn't make sense of while feeling like her face was peeling off.
And then, a second later, the shadows vanished and they emerged into the light again, blinding her.
"Ah!" she gasped, rolling in the sand. "That…oh…that was not fun."
"Yeah," Liza said somewhere next to her. "Let's agree never to do that again."
"Hmm," Nico grumbled. "Well, you're welcome anyway."
"Sorry, thanks," Korra told him and he nodded back. She blinked and saw that they were in the shadows of the city, the walls looming above them. She turned around and saw the creature in the distance, about a hundred yards away from them. And Diana and Ben were still there fighting.
"We have to help them," Liza said, noticing the same thing.
"Don't worry, I got this," Korra said. She was a little low on energy right now after that flying bit but she figured maybe she could summon just a little more. She twisted her arms around and formed another airball, riding it right back over to where the beast was. As she did, she saw even more tentacles than before now writhing around Diana and Ben. Diana was whipping her sword around so much that it was incredible to watch while Ben simply punched as many as he could as fast as he could, sometimes grabbing several at once and tearing into them.
"Diana!" she cried out as she got close, causing her to look up. "We gotta go!"
"How did- never mind," Diana shook it off. She started to back off, attempting an escape but the tentacles seemed to sense this and lashed out even more, forcing her back on the offensive.
Korra grimaced. They weren't going to make it like this. They needed an opening. Taking a deep breath, she dredged up everything she had and began moving her arms around. "Get ready!" she yelled out and then threw it all up, the air whipping right into the tentacles and forcing them all back like an invisible wall.
Korra sagged, dropping to her knees, but still holding fast, keeping the tentacles at bay.
"Don't worry kid, I got ya," Ben said, swooping down to pick her up as he and Diana ran for it. "Just keep it up a little longer. And where's Hela?"
"Swallowed, I think."
"No, she's not," Diana replied. "I saw a tentacle throw her up and into the city. I don't think the creature wanted to eat her."
Probably due to all the stabbing in its throat, Korra thought. She pressed on the air, continuously bending it to keep the tentacles back, knowing every second bought them more space.
"Here," Diana suddenly said and the next thing Korra knew was that they were all flying, Diana having apparently lifted up Ben with Korra still on him.
"Whoa!" Ben gasped for a second before chuckling. "Damn, where you been hiding this skill?"
"Just hold on and don't make any sudden movements," Diana replied. Within seconds, they arrived right next to Nico and Liza and Korra finally dropped the wall of air, letting the tentacles go free. They could all see the monster writhing there for a second before diving back into the sand, kicking up a storm.
"Wait, is that thing coming here?" Ben asked, frowning.
Korra kneeled down and reached out with her earth senses. They were muffled by the sand but the creature was so big that she could still make it out, barely. "No, I don't think so," she replied. "I think it's leaving."
"Huh, well good for us," Liza smirked. "Guess it decided to try for easier food."
"Or, it didn't want to follow us," Nico said.
Korra glanced back at him. "What do you mean?"
"I mean, maybe it's more afraid of what's inside here than it is hungry," he explained, gesturing to the towering city.
"That's a comforting thought," Liza muttered.
Ben sniffed. "In this line of work, aren't they all?"
"Come on, we're losing daylight," Diana said, watching the sun descend in the sky. "Let's try and find some shelter in the city. Maybe find Hela as well. And then, try and get some answers."
But as they walked, Korra couldn't help but wonder if Nico was right. What exactly was waiting inside those walls for them?
Nothing good, I can promise you that.
Just saying this, that creature is not a sarlacc, it's an original creature. Hope you liked the action and Nico's official intro. Please leave a review if you can.