by Brian Nyaude
12
With each minute, we made haste going towards the bottom of this cave or labyrinth. Honestly, I had no clue as to where we were anymore or how far we were beneath the surface. The enemy was already aware of our presence so there was no point of moving in stealth. I began to see the bottom clearly without relying on the power granted to me by the mist. Strangely, the bare ground wasn’t tiled like the floor was. I was right, this was a cave indeed. Once we were close to the other metal men, we all slowed down and moved silently in rhythm at the same time observing our new surroundings.
“Would you look at that!” Ogana stopped and hid behind a giant marble stone structure. “Never seen anything like it.”
We all followed suit and hid with him, but also looking at what he was pointing at. The bright red light was huge and truly frightening. It was indeed the same light I had seen when I was still above on the other floors. Up close, it was unlike anything I had ever seen before. My arm tingled as I felt a slight discomfort in my stomach. On this ground floor, a battalion of metal men marched around everywhere working smoothly on their suspicious task.
“Remain quiet or they will notice us,” I whispered to them as I gently crept closer for a better view.
Odd!
They were going about their business as if nothing had happened which made me slightly uncomfortable. Had they not been bothered by the strange explosion or were they just playing along until they trapped us again? From the angle I was, I had a better glimpse of the cave. It was terribly huge with anterior of metals built into the wall to stabilize it. There were people inside the cave shackled and being fed into the red light. I looked away for a second stunned with rage and disbelief, but at the same time I could not keep my eyes closed. I felt obligated to help them although that would also mean revealing our position to the enemy. All I could do was watch as innocent people got fed into whatever that thing was.
“Hey Ogana let go off me,” Dashe yelled as he woke up. “If this is your way of apologizing for hitting me then forget it.”
“Shut up you idiot,” Kaya screamed at him. “Do you want to get us noticed?”
The metal men stopped what they were doing and at looked at our location. Dashe had blown our cover and there was no more use hiding. The enemy was now aware of our presence and as such, they began to charge on our position. They marched distinctively with their weapons well at hand. Eyes piercing at us deeply like cold steel.
“What do we do now?” Ogana yelled to me throwing Dashe on the floor.
In my eyes the only option left was to fight head on or submit to the enemy. I got up and clenched my fists tightly while adjusting my eyes towards my surrounding foes. I was trembling scared, but the thought of being eaten by that light or being turned into those creatures shook away the fear.
“We fight,” I yelled loudly.
I had never said something like that before, and probably was going to regret my words later. That being said, I couldn’t stop trembling, I was shaking from kin excitement. The thrill of a difficult battle was giving me a joy unlike anything I had ever experienced before. I think deep down I shared the insatiable blood lust like all my kinsmen had. One could only deny his nature for so long. Something that powerful could only be suppressed for a short while before it erupted into destruction.
“What am I saying?” I took my mind off my thoughts and focused on what lay before me.
The number of metal men down here was enough to form an army of soldiers. To make it worse, they were incredibly strong and used some sort of destructive light which shot out of their eyes.
Against so many we were at a disadvantage, only four of us fighting an army of them. On top to that, they were coming in heavy numbers at the same time. Their movements were so fluent and coordinated and yet they did not speak or signal each other. I focused my eyes behind them and noticed something peculiar. The red light I had been keeping a close eye on was acting strange. For a minute, it closed and opened again like an eye ball.
“I don’t believe this,” Ogana moved back a little shaken with fear.
“Maybe we should run,” Kaya said moving behind Ogana quickly.
“I don’t think that choice is on the table gentleman,” I chuckled and shifted my legs apart.
Another strange red light similar to the first one appeared a few yards from the other one. We heard a strange noise as if gears were clashing against each other. It was rather irritating to my ears as the noise sounded like someone scratching on a board.
“It’s coming,” Kaya said sounding scared. “The terrible monster is coming.”
Looking closely, the strange lights looked like eyes of something terribly big. The ground was shaking as if an earthquake was occurring, whatever that red light was it was certainly the source of it. With an army of strange metal men approaching and a terrible metal creature behind them could we win?
“What now,” Dashe said impatiently, moving away frantically.
He unsheathed all his swords one at a time and took a giant breath of air. Judging by his reaction, it looked like he had much more battle experience compared to the rest of us. Finally I was going to get a chance to see what he was truly capable of and what power the white water mists had given him. I just hoped though it hadn’t given him an increase in bad manners and attitude.
Whoa!
The giant red eyes slowly levitated up and gazed upon us instantly. I was stunned and frightened that my legs couldn’t stop moving.
“They are coming,” Ogana screamed shocking me out of my thoughts. He firmly gripped his spear and dashed to meet them head on. Moving left and right, he zigzagged between them planning his counterstrike carefully.
The army of metal men attacked and disaster struck. Outnumbered and out powered, we were at a big disadvantage. Even with Kaya’s destructive power we weren’t going to get out of this unharmed. And at such a close distance, Kaya’s power would roast all of us into ash so we had to keep it at a physical contact type of battle. Unfortunately, our opponents weren’t playing fair. They were shooting strange red lights from their eyes which had such destructive power and speed. Ogana was hit on his left arm by two of the strange beams of light, but kept fighting hard. He was ravaging them all over the ground without any care for his life. No fear! I finally took out my sword which I had got from Tom’s saddle and joined in the fight. To my surprise it wasn’t doing any damage. It felt like I was using a thin stick to try and break steel walls. The difference in our power was great and far much more than I had ever imagined. Without my mysterious power, our chances of winning were starting to look slim. To my right side, I saw Kaya fighting and holding his ground, he had dismembered both his arms and blew off some of the metal men. The strange red light eyes were looking down on us silently. I could feel nothing in their presence and yet I felt the biggest blood lust from them.
“I don’t have a choice,” Dashe sighed and stopped his motion. His face took a serious change the moment he sheathed back all of his swords.
What was he doing? I was too far out of reach to get to him and help him. A horde of strange metal men were surrounding him, ready to attack him at moment’s notice.
“I never wanted to use this power, but that’s no longer an option now.”
I felt an immense pressure sprout out of him quickly, he was about to do something crazy again. Without thinking, I dashed towards him, but was stopped halfway by another batch of metal men. I paused softly placing my right leg in front and readied myself for their attack. Darn! There was no way I could reach Dashe with them in the way.
“Everyone stand far away back,” Dashe said raising his right arm up into the air, “I’m going to destroy all of them.”
Impossible! This many was too much even for Kaya. It would take a miracle to get us out of this jam we were in. Whatever mischief he was about to unleash would surely destroy us all by my guess. Dashe’s arm glowed blue and then vanished in what looked like a miniature dimension portal. What manner of ench
antment was this?
Nothing happened at first as we stopped and stared at him. Had he bluffed us? Suddenly the roof of the cave began to look like a giant portal rip. No one was safe from whatever he was planning. My gut feeling started to tell me to run, but there was nowhere to run since I was surrounded by a horde of enemies.
Something was terribly wrong. I felt a shift in the air. It was suffocating and almost nauseating, and something told me Dashe was behind this. Firmly, I grasped my sword and took a few steps back away from the metal men.
“Stop it Dashe,” I yelled to him. “There has to be another way to win.”
It was too late, he wasn’t listening anymore.
Dashe looked back and said, “Sorry Rid, this is the only way I see.”
This feeling! I looked up towards the portal and my eyes widened. Bowls of molted rocks came out of it. This was like a meteor storm up close.
“Feel my wrath,” Dashe yelled and more molted rocks came out of it.
This was bad! An attack as powerful as this was not something that could be avoided. The cave was filled with orange light. The darkness vanished, and I could now see clearly the monster that was behind the metal men. It was some sort of canine with multiple tentacles and the very sharp long fangs. It looked like the combination of a wolf in shape and structure combined with the teeth of a saber tooth tiger. The skin was also made from metal and the ever moving tentacles made it looking very intimidating. I stopped thinking, barely dodging a large hot rock. My leg was burned slightly as I had managed to avoid the lava like substance in the hot rock. Oh no! More were coming and it seemed there was no end to them. At this rate it was only a matter of time before one of us was a goner. The majority of the metal men had been melted away and the metal dog seemed to be taking the most damaged because of its size.
“Have you gone insane Dashe?” I rushed towards him at top speed. “You are going to kill all of us.”
He wasn’t listening and his energy felt different. It felt like he was a whole different person now. His eyes were blurry and he didn’t seem to move his body at all as if he was in another place in his mind. The temperature in the cave was rising, starting to look like the inside of a volcano. More and more molted hot rocks were still coming out from the rip he created. Kaya and Ogana seemed to be holding out as Kaya shot some of his fingers at the rocks making them explode before coming close.
“They won’t last longer,” I said to myself. “I have to protect them even if it kills me.”
Ignoring my pain and the hot floor, I rushed towards Dashe barely ducking some of the constantly falling rocks that now seemed to be falling faster and faster progressively.
What the! There were still some innocent people in the cave beneath the giant metal dog’s legs. In my opinion it was trying to protect its next meal from being burnt. Whatever the case maybe it eased my mind and helped me concentrate on stopping Dashe. The familiar flow of the yellow energy began to surround my body again. It was filling me with power and increasing my speed. I had somehow untapped the power of the gauntlet again without realizing it.
“Now I will stop him,” I thought out loud moving at even astonishing speed.
As I got close, I raised my leg high and kicked him in the face sending him flying into a cave wall. I felt better for some unknown reason. I had wanted to hit him for a long time and now I had done it. The portal in his arm and the one in the roof vanished. I had injured Dashe severely and he was barely conscious. Strangely, enough the molted rocks on the ground also disappeared; however the damage everywhere did not.
“What was that for?” he coughed slowly shaking his head. “You fool!”
With those few words he closed his eyes and fell unconscious.
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