Chapter 111: In My Presence, You Are All But Eggs
The Trailblaze crew of the Astral Express had arrived on Planet Onnivak, though their landing zone was far from the world's most famous tourist destination, Wacker Island.
"Onnivak!"
"Hooray!"
"Waaaagh!"
"Hold on a second." Rekka raised a hand, calling a halt to the procession. "Stelle, what's with the getup?"
"It's the Croods style," she declared, looking down at the primitive animal-skin clothes she was wearing. She scratched her head, seeing absolutely nothing wrong with her fashion choice.
March 7th's expression was a complicated mix of disbelief and secondhand embarrassment. "If you run into mosquitoes dressed like that..."
In the end, faced with the obvious and overwhelming threat of the rainforest's mosquito population, Stelle reluctantly changed into a set of proper protective clothing.
The jungle around them was a vertical maze of towering trees draped with countless thick vines. A deep layer of fallen leaves blanketed the ground, feeling deceptively soft underfoot but occasionally emitting an eerie, squelching sound as if something had just been juiced. All sorts of bizarre plants grew in a crowded, competitive tangle. Some bore brilliant, fist-sized flowers; others sported giant leaves that could easily serve as umbrellas; and some… some were slowly, deliberately squirming.
Thirty minutes later, the group had a much deeper appreciation for just how terrifying this place was.
"My Six-Phased Ice was almost chewed to bits…" March 7th lamented, her face a mask of misery as she inspected the fresh bite marks on her crystalline bow.
Dan Heng stared at the viscous plant-juice stains marring his Cloud-Piercer, lost in thought. The spear itself hadn't been bitten through, but not for lack of trying on the flora's part; it had been gnawed on several times.
"My tail was almost bitten!" Rozaliya cried, hugging her own tail protectively.
"Rozaliya, are you okay?" Liliya asked, her voice laced with concern.
"I'm fine, but Liliya, you weren't bitten, were you?"
Today, Rekka walked the Path of The Hunt. He glanced at the impenetrable wall of vegetation ahead, then at March. "Take this!"
With a casual gesture that seemed to defy physics, Rekka used a skill that looked suspiciously like a five-fingered discount, and March's bow vanished from her hands, reappearing in his.
He nocked an arrow of pure energy. A flash of violet light tore through the air, and a spacious path was forcibly plowed through the rainforest. The plants on both sides were sliced open with surgical precision, charred white smoke rising from the cauterized cuts. The air filled with the acrid smell of scorched chlorophyll.
"Let's go," Rekka said, lowering the bow. "Move quickly before they grow back. The ecology here is too wild. If we don't use some harsh methods, we'll probably be spending the night in the bushes."
Just as his arrow carved a path, several carnivorous flowers poked their heads out from the nearby canopy. Viscous liquid dripped from the edges of their petals, hitting the fallen leaves with a soft patter that was immediately followed by puffs of corrosive white smoke.
Stelle turned her head and found herself face-to-face with a monstrous bloom the size of a millstone. Its petals were slowly peeling back to reveal rows of dense, sharp teeth, and it was practically drooling at the sight of her. The flower suddenly lunged, its stem straightening like a compressed spring as it shot straight for her face.
With a powerful swing of her bat, Stelle slammed the plant back into the treeline.
'One hundred tons of force, kid,' she thought with grim satisfaction.
"Whoa, look!" Stelle suddenly exclaimed, pointing. "There's a centipede the size of a mountain!"
A colossal insect had just crawled out from a massive hole in the ground. A gaping wound was already punched through its forehead.
"And it has a huge hole in its head already…" March murmured.
Dan Heng acted without a word. "Imbibitor Lunae, Azure Dragon Cleansing the World!"
He commandeered a colossal amount of seawater from the distant ocean, condensing it into the majestic form of a giant, swirling dragon. The mountain-sized centipede was forcibly swept into the air, its countless limbs thrashing wildly as a piercing hiss erupted from its mandibles.
The water dragon exploded in mid-air, shattering into a crystalline rain that showered the forest. The centipede's massive body, deprived of its support, crashed back to the ground. The impact broke countless trees and kicked up a tidal wave of dust and debris.
"It's not dead yet," Dan Heng stated, his eyes narrowed.
"Not dead?" March 7th's eyes widened. "It got smashed like that and it's still not dead?"
As if to answer her, the centipede's tail whipped out, snapping a nearby tree as thick as two people in half. It struggled to right itself, but its body was clearly no longer obeying its commands. Several limbs kicked at the air randomly, but it couldn't manage to flip over.
"This thing's vitality is way too stubborn."
Rekka and Dan Heng exchanged a look. Stelle poked her head out from between them, looking from one to the other with an eager grin.
"Blazing Hope!"
"Torrential Flood!"
"Caladbolg II!"
Today's Rekka was a Mystery Archer, and this was the Astral Express's most serious archer in action. Did they dare look him in the eye? A person who truly intended to let loose an arrow like that wouldn't have a smile on their face.
Flames, torrents, and spiraling arrows of pure light intertwined into a destructive storm, forcibly tearing the massive creature to pieces. Limbs, carapace fragments, and viscous bodily fluids splashed everywhere, creating a foul-smelling rain in the jungle.
"Is it dead now?" March asked tentatively.
"Dead as can be." Stelle kicked a piece of wreckage on the ground. A large section of carapace flipped over, revealing internal organs that were still twitching faintly. "This thing is pretty tough."
Dan Heng put away his Cloud-Piercer, his gaze falling on the pile of remains as his brow furrowed slightly. "Onnivak's ecology… is even more exaggerated than the descriptions in the records."
"Isn't that great?" Stelle shouldered her baseball bat, a wide grin spreading across her face. "Exciting! This is what you call an adventure!"
Just as she finished speaking, the ground began to vibrate.
"Do you guys feel that…?" March's voice was a bit shaky. "The ground is shaking."
"Yes," Dan Heng replied succinctly. "And there's more than one."
"More than one what?"
At first, it was just a slight tremor, causing the standing water on the ground to ripple. But soon, the vibration grew more and more violent. In the distance, towering trees began to collapse in entire patches, their fall accompanied by deafening cracking sounds.
Shhh— Shhh—
It was the sound of countless, densely packed limbs crawling rapidly over fallen leaves and mud. The sound came from all directions, an overwhelming, skin-crawling tide of noise.
The canopy was brutally torn open as a dozen terrifying heads, each two or three times larger than the one they had just fought, poked out from the shadows of the rainforest. Their bodies were a nauseating dark red, and as their massive mouthparts opened and closed, green venom dripped down, instantly corroding the surrounding plants into pools of black sludge.
They weren't just in front. To the left, to the right, and even on the path they had just cleared behind them, the area was now crawling with Onnivak's native centipedes.
And then, Little Blue Light woke up.
'Who's making such a racket under my bridge?'The moment Little Blue Light awoke, every single one of the giant centipedes collapsed to the ground. Their dense legs froze, not daring to move an inch. Their massive mandibles clamped shut.'Your progenitor once said,'a silent, ancient voice seemed to echo in the very air,'in my presence, you are all just insect eggs. Buzz.'Little Blue Light's body suddenly began to swell.'Alright then. Watch me eat you all like spicy strips.'
Its massive mouthparts slowly opened, revealing layers upon layers of sharp, chittering mandibles within.
"I feel like we're crabs," March 7th said, rubbing her chin thoughtfully.
"The 'walking all over the competition' part," Stelle finished for her, nodding sagely.
In less than ten minutes, the dozen or so giant centipedes were wiped out, cleaned up by Little Blue Light without a trace. Only a few pools of corroded black water and some broken carapace fragments remained on the ground as evidence they had ever existed.
Little Blue Light let out a loud, satisfied burp. Its body slowly shrank, returning to its previous, much smaller size, before it scampered back to nuzzle against Rekka's feet.
"Buzz buzz."
'Boss, today's spicy strips tasted okay, but they got a bit stuck in my teeth. Buzz.'
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