Dododex
ARK: Survival Evolved & Ascended Companion
The Arks: Over Heaven (by Ben)
Chapter 92: Rune
Original Post Date: Aug 6, 2024
Note: Story starts in Wyvern, Aerial ABC backwards filter and has a Prologue. Last chapter in Pulmonoscorpius, next chapter in Phiomia.
~
“Preparations are complete, Skyler.”
Skyler was standing at the edge of the river. Her head was aimed down at the softly running river, where she gazed at her own reflection. Her white, silvery curly hair flowed down her back. The gray spots seemed even more definitive these past few days. Skyler turned back, her eyes glinting under the moonlight. Sunny was standing behind her, comfortably sinking her feet into the soft sand. The trees’ leaves in the nearby forest whistled softly from the gentle winds.
“I’m glad to hear, Sunny,” Skyler murmured softly, her voice barely decipherable. Her eyes had bags underneath them. Sunny ruffled her orange hair and adjusted her flak armor.
“You look like you’ve been missing out on sleep,” Sunny observed, “Are you trying to get those dreams again?”
Skyler nodded softly, turning back around to stare into the river water. The reflection of the Moon bounced off the water and into her eyes, along with the rest of the stars in the night sky.
“I’ve been trying. But I’m just worried,” Skyler revealed, closing her eyes gently, “I don’t want to get someone hurt again.”
Sunny walked over to Skyler’s side, staring off into the distance. She could see five dodos being chased down by orange-eyed Troodons on the other side. Sunny looked at Skyler. She seemed so tired. For a moment, she truly did regret feeling such animosity toward her.
“Do you want to talk?” Sunny asked her. Skyler’s gaze softened. She blinked her eyes softly. It was almost as if she would fall asleep standing upright. She shook her head.
“Maybe after,” Skyler replied blankly, “After all this is over.”
Sunny nodded, respecting her choice. She turned around and began to walk back into the inner foldings of their camp.
“Five Tyrannosaurus and five Megatheriums just as you and Rick had planned,” Sunny reminded her, “We could saddle two respectively, but the rest will remain unarmored. All of us have flak armor except you, and we’re stocked up on cooked meat. And Bobby, Simon, and I have gotten the training we need for what’s to come.”
Skyler nodded solemnly.
“I’m very proud. Very… Now shall we travel? Night has arrived. I believe this is when her influence is strongest.”
“Go tell it to them. They’re waiting for your command.”
Sunny headed back into camp, and Skyler quickly followed, her hands behind her back. She could feel the stars looking down upon her, watching her every move. She softly sang a poem, her heart lightly pounding against her ribs.
“In this endless night,
I tread with many,
Yet my heart lays alone,
Oh please, dear stars,
Lend me your strength,
Lend me your hope…”
Skyler’s foot crunched against the soft gravel. She stepped into the gates and saw all of her friends gathered in front of her, each one wearing flak armor. The beasts they had tamed the past few days were ready at their command. Lynx the Sabertooth stood by Gary’s side, Special Raptor was tapping its claw onto the dirt next to Paige, and Stream the Kaprosuchus was standing next to Sunny. Even Chris’ dodo and the weak little Phiomia were coming along for the ride.
Sunny, Gary, Paige, Rick, Bobby, and Simon. All six of them bowed as Skyler approached. She bowed back toward them. Bobby seemed especially nervous, but wiped the sweat away from his forehead.
“We will head to the green obelisk right now!” Skyler announced, her voice loud and clear, “We’re going to fight with whatever we got, okay? And no matter what happens… Always protect one another. We’re all we’ve got. We’ve known each for a long time. Some of us more than others. Some of us closer than others. But what matters is that we stick together, and most importantly, confide our trust in one another. We must, or we shall never survive.”
The others nodded in acknowledgement. Skyler turned her back to them, waving her hand so they would follow her.
~
Clank. Clank. Clank.
Boots pounded against metal as the green obelisk glowed at its brightest. The terminal began to hum as Skyler approached it, sensing the power of the artifact within her. Skyler eyed the podium and noticed an implant attached to it. That was not there before. But it didn’t matter. Whoever placed it there finished the puzzle that was the obelisk.
Upon closer inspection, the gem embedded inside the metal implant seemed to look more like a button than a gem now.
Skyler turned to face her friends. Simon had the Artifact of the Massive in his hands, and Gary had the Artifact of the Pack in his. The two walked up to the terminal. Skyler nodded at the ground.
“There. Place the artifacts there, in those slots,” Skyler said.
Click! Click!
The obelisk terminal immediately began to hum with power. Skyler’s implant began to glow, and then the Artifact of the Hunter manifested in her hands. She crouched down and placed it in the last slot.
Click!
Beep!
A voice rang out from the terminal.
“Three artifacts detected. Lowering difficulty of the protocol. Increasing EXP reward. Press the button when you are ready.”
The artifacts shot out of the slots and disintegrated to dust, flying into Skyler’s implant. She could immediately feel the effects of the artifact enter her head. Her implant attribute crackled, explaining each artifact’s ability.
“Artifact of the Massive. Allows size manipulation of your own body along with any items you possess.”
“Artifact of the Pack. Allows you to create obedient, non-sentient clones of yourself.”
Skyler eyed the implant nervously. She carefully placed her finger on it.
She looked up at the stars one last time. They sparkled at her in approval.
Skyler shut her eyes tight. She began to count down.
“5… 4… 3…”
Skyler clicked the button early.
Beep.
“Activate boss fight procedure?”
The shriek of some strange creature came from the terminal. It almost sounded like a spider. Skyler looked back at her friends. They nodded slowly.
Skyler looked back, and then pressed her finger against the gem once more. A green beam of light shot down on the metal podium, and everyone let out gasps of shock. Even the creatures seemed taken aback, despite their emotionless states. The world around them began to flicker, and the stars around them shined even harder.
“I think I’mma barf-”
Bobby was cut off as they disappeared.
SHOOM!
As the Book Club disappeared from sight, the green obelisk began to crackle with energy, humming even brighter than before.
~
The world flickered back into view, but it was most certainly not their world. It was a giant, enclosed cave filled with thousands of vines, plants, and other plethora of fruits. It was like a swamp within a cave. The air was humid and hot. Everyone was already beginning to sweat.
“So this is the heat you were talking about Rick,” Simon said nervously, looking around. There were strange orange sacs on the ceiling. They were wiggling around like tumors. Gary took out his pistol.
“I think we need to be careful,” Gary suggested, “Weapons out.”
Everyone drew their weapons. And as they did, they heard the shriek of a foul, hideous beast.
“What was that?!” Bobby asked, his hammer out on the ready. Sunny squinted her eyes. It seemed to be coming from the other side of the cave. The Megatheriums sniffed the air and let out ferocious roars. The Tyrannosaurus stepped forward.
From the depths of vines and plant foliage, out came a disgusting, ginormous spider. Its height surpassed that of a Tyrannosaurus, almost by double. Its large eight legs scattered about the cavern floors, slowly creeping over to the Book Club members. It let out a shriek, not of hatred, but of pain. Its legs bent and quivered as it slowly approached them. Its abdomen was disproportionately large. Many spikes jutted out of it. Most likely for protection.
“Oh,” Paige said, turning white. She clutched onto her club tighter. A CHECK button manifested next to Skyler’s hand, and she pressed it. It turned green.
“TESSA- BROODMOTHER LYSRIX,” the analysis corrected itself, “THE MOTHER OF ALL SPIDERS. BOASTS A HIGH DEFENSE AND HIGH ATTACK. HOWEVER EASY TO RUSH WITH LITTLE STRATEGY INVOLVED. A BATTLE OF TRUE ATTRITION.”
Skyler squirmed nervously. The button flickered away from sight, and she looked up at the Broodmother. She felt the power of the artifacts flowing in her veins. Quickly, two clones of herself poofed into existence. She could feel her hunting spirit increase. She pointed her finger at it.
“CHARGE!”
Everyone let out a battle cry and flailed their weapons around as they ran straight at the Broodmother. The Tyrannosaurus were the first to attack. They quickly slammed their jaws down onto the Broodmother’s legs. The strategy seemed to work well. With five of them they were able to restrain it and prevent it from moving. The Megatheriums swiped their claws at the Broodmother. Its tough skin proved quite resistant and formidable, but the giant sloths were making a little bit of progress. Small cuts were appearing on its body.
Everyone let out a cheer as the Megatheriums went to town on the Broodmother. Perhaps it wouldn’t be such a difficult battle after all. Maybe they wouldn’t even need to participate in the fight after all.
But then the Broodmother let out another shriek.
SPLAT!
SPLAT!
Skyler’s head jerked up to the ceiling and she saw all of the strange sacs that were attached to the ceiling burst. Gooey liquid burst out onto the swamp, coating the humans. Chris’ dodo let out a squawk of fear, hiding behind Paige. Paige looked up and saw hundreds of Araneos fall out of the sac and into the arena. The Araneos all let out shrill screams, getting up onto their eight legs and rushing over to assist their mother.
It was like a wave of spiders. It was at that moment, Skyler understood.
They were doomed.
The spiders immediately began to swarm in, lashing out and pinning all of Skyler’s friends down. They tried to kick the Araneos off, and it worked for a moment. Bobby managed to kick a spider off him and he scrambled to Simon, who was spinning his axe round and round, clearing away a large amount of the crowd.
Even though some weren’t having as much trouble, others definitely were. Sunny and Gary were noticeably struggling. A spider lunged at Gary, who quickly dodged out of the way with his clairvoyance, but Sunny was not as lucky. A spider almost bit down on Sunny’s leg, but she managed to kick it away with her foot.
Paige and Rick seemed to be in quite a good spot. Rick was tearing away at most of the spiders with his knife. Paige’s club proved especially effective against the fragile arachnids’ bodies.
But still, there were so many of them.
Lynx let out a roar as he was overrun by spiders. The spiders chowed down on his body. SpecialRaptor whipped a spider with her tail, and then pounced on another spider, tearing away at it, but the Broodmother’s leg raised above her and slammed down into her body, crushing her for good.
Skyler knew that the little ones were the biggest threat. She pointed her finger at the little araneos and ordered in her mind to have her clones rush at them. Skyler’s two duplicates rushed forward, punching away at the horde. Skyler concentrated, and then she increased in size.
Now she was just as large as the Megatheriums. She tried her best to increase her size more, but it seemed that she had reached her limit. She looked down at the araneos, which didn’t seem to pay any attention to her at all. She stepped forward slowly and squished a bunch of them under her foot.
SPLAT!
As soon as she did, the araneos redirected their attention toward her. They began to climb up her legs in an attempt to reach her vital organs, biting down on her legs as they went along. Skyler kicked a bunch of them away and tore them off her body, but in her super-size state her movements were slower.
With the Araneos off the others’ tails, they were given an opportunity to regain their stamina. Bobby looked up at the towering Skyler in worry. There was not much more the others could do.
“Isn’t there a way to get rid of all of them at once?” Bobby asked. Simon turned to Bobby with a devious grin.
“There might be a way.”
Simon reached into his backpack and took out a bomb. It’s a very sensitive, powerful bomb. With one it’d easily take out most of the Araneos. Simon quickly ushered for the others to gather around. They did, and he told them all the plan.
“Okay, Paige, hit this with your club toward the spiders.”
He tossed it to Paige and Paige whacked the bomb toward the spiders.
“Sunny, heat up Gary’s gun.”
Sunny blasted a wave of heat into the barrel.
“Now Gary, shoot it!”
Gary aimed his revolver at the bomb and pulled the trigger on it.
POW!
“Now Bobby, build a wall!”
Bobby slammed his hammer into the ground, and a thatch wall rose from the ground in a few seconds.
In an instant, the bomb exploded.
KABOOM!
The spiders all collapsed to the ground, and Skyler flinched as the bomb slightly scorched her arm. The wall went tumbling down, absorbing most of the shrapnel the bomb had sent out, shielding the others from harm. All the spiders that were on her body collapsed and fell to the ground, dead. Only a few remained, which Skyler flicked off her body.
“WOO HOO! WE DID IT! NOW EVERYONE ATTACK THE BROODMOTHER!”
Everyone charged at the Broodmother once more. Despite the odds, they had destroyed all of the araneos with ease, and now they could focus their attention on the real boss. The Broodmother even had one of its legs torn off from the Tyrannosaurus. Its body was covered in deep wounds but it still persisted. It really was a tank.
It didn’t matter now, because they would soon take it down with all they got!
Gary shot at the Broodmother from a safe distance, while the others helped the Tyrannosaurus attack and take down the legs. Skyler leaned her giant fist back and slammed it into the Broodmother, causing it to bleed even more.
Skyler was feeling even more pleased. Victory was on the horizon.
“Finally, finally!” Skyler thought as her eyes wavered with joy, “Moonflight was right… This is the key. I can feel it. It has what we need.”
But then the Broodmother let out another shriek.
Dozens of Araneos shot out of who knew where from its body, these ones even larger and seemingly more durable than the last. The araneos let out a shriek for their mother and began to swarm the friends once again.
Bobby ran over to Simon, and the others did too, ready to reenact their plan.
“Quick, take out another bomb!” Bobby told him.
“That was the only one I got!”
Bobby turned white.
“WHAT?!”
It was too late.
The spiders first swarmed the beasts. The Rexes were unable to defend themselves from their attacks. They fell down to the ground, and soon their struggles stopped.
The Megatheriums managed to hold off the spiders at first, but once the ones that had taken down the Rexes came for them there was no point in it anymore. They were quickly overrun.
Skyler and the others were next.
“RUN!” Sunny cried.
Paige picked up Chris’ dodo and all of them began to make a run for it. Even Skyler didn’t want to risk it. She quickly transformed back to her regular size and ran alongside them. She sent her two clones out to delay their attacks, but they were taken down in just a matter of seconds.
They ran and ran throughout the cavern, which seemed almost never ending. Gary quickly looked back. They were gaining on them.
“Don’t look back, just keep going!” Paige screamed, her breath husky and sweat pouring down her face. Suddenly Paige fell to the ground. Webbing was stuck around her feet. Chris’ dodo dropped to the ground and it let out a squawk. More webs shot out from the spider horde and soon all of them were trapped and stuck. Skyler looked back at her impending doom. The Broodmother lurched forward, letting out shrieks of pain as it did.
“Is this really it?” Skyler thought, as her life began to flash by her eyes, “Is this how I die? In vain?”
Thousands of memories replayed in her head. She could hear the barking of her dog in her ears as the spiders slowly began to approach. She could hear the promise Ben made to her as the Broodmother let out another shriek of pain. And she could feel the love of all of her friends as they accepted their fates.
Skyler opened her mouth, and began to sing.
“In the dark,
When my hope starts to dim,
All those who I love,
Are all by my side…
Even if we don’t survive,
We will know inside our hearts,
That we tried.
We tried to make a change.”
Time seemed to slow down for them. She could hear the stars crackle. Then, a mythical three-headed silver dragon swooped in from the air. It wrapped its necks around Skyler. Nobody seemed to be able to see it.
“I shall protect you,” Moonflight whispered to Skyler. Skyler’s heart leaped with joy.
“I truly have been honored,” Skyler thought. Perhaps she would live to see another day. Skyler looked at her friends. She looked back at Moonflight.
“What about them?” Skyler asked quietly. Moonflight shook her heads.
“I cannot help them. Only you.”
Skyler’s fists clenched.
“W-What? But-”
“Don’t question it dear. Just be grateful I’m here,” one of Moonflight’s heads snapped. The others looked at the head with a warning look. The head backed down. The middle head looked at Skyler.
“My biggest fan… you’re my biggest fan for a reason,” Moonflight said, “You have a big role to play soon. You must-”
“No. I won’t do it,” Skyler firmly said, “I would rather die with them then live knowing I could have done something to save them.”
Moonflight gazed at Skyler with some contempt. Then she backed away from Skyler.
“I’ll give my life up for them. Give me your power, Moonflight. I don’t care if it kills me,” Skyler told her, “Protect them, Moonflight. Promise me you’ll protect them and guide them as you have protected me.”
Moonflight glared for a moment, but then her gaze softened. She nodded softly.
“Very well.”
Moonflight’s middle head lowered down to Skyler, and her crown began to glow.
“Take it.”
Skyler gingerly reached for the crown and removed it from her head. As she did, Moonflight faded away from her sight. As she did, Skyler noticed that the webbing around her had burst into nothingness. So had the webbing covering her friends. They all looked at her in awe, and at the crown that lay in her hands.
“Skyler…” Paige muttered under her breath, her eyes wide with shock.
Skyler looked at the crown. There was a strange rune embedded on the front that had a red engraving on it. It glowed as Skyler’s fingers grasped the crown. She reached for the rune, and plucked it out.
SHOOM!
Skyler let out a cry of pain as a burning sensation scorched her bones. She dropped the crown to the ground, and turned to face the spider horde. The araneos backed away in fear. Skyler pointed the rune at the spiders, and the rune began to glow brighter.
CRACKLE! KABOOM!
Storm clouds began to manifest in the air, seemingly from nowhere. The rune was at its brightest. The spiders let out shrill shrieks as they were sucked into the storm clouds. The storm clouds faded away, leaving nothing in their trace.
Only the Broodmother remained. It let out another cry of pain, but it no longer had its minions to assist her. The Broodmother stumbled forward, and Skyler did too. The rune shined even brighter. Its power boomed in Skyler’s brain, making her head hurt and her eyes burn. She looked down at her wrist and saw her implant burning and melting away.
“No time to waste,” Skyler thought, “Let’s finish this.”
Skyler pointed the rune at the Broodmother once more. The Broodmother let out a shriek of pain as she began to sink further and further into the ground. It was like the ground was pulling her in. Upon closer inspection Skyler saw some strange metal underneath the grass.
The Broodmother sank halfway into the ground, and then, with a deafening explosion, its body combusted inside-out.
BAM!
The broodmother’s legs flew everywhere, and the thorax of it seemed to be melting. Skyler let out a groan as she dropped the rune to the ground. She closed her eyes softly and the others ran up to her.
“Skyler! You did it Skyler you did it! You- you saved us and-” Sunny paused as she looked at Skyler. Then, her joy turned to tears.
“Skyler you’re-” Paige couldn’t find the words for it.
Skyler was slowly melting away.
“It’s going to be okay, everyone,” Skyler told them with a smile, “I promise you’ll all make it out safely.”
Her face began to get droopy as her body slowly began to become more and more distorted. Her fingers dripped off her hands and onto the ground.
“I’m sorry, Chris. And I’m sorry, Ben. I won’t get to see them again will I? Heh,” Skyler said. She closed her eyes, “Thank you. Everyone. For all being my friends.”
The others rushed in and hugged her tightly. They didn’t want to let go. Her body was scorching hot, but they didn’t care. They let out their tears as they watched their friend slowly pass on.
SHOOM!
The world around them crackled away, and they were back on the obelisk podium. It was still night. The moon above them crackled. It was so much more beautiful today.
It looked like it was missing one of its craters.
Many still grieved, and tears flooded down their faces onto the metal. Skyler had sacrificed herself to save them all. Skyler had kept them safe. In the end, she had been an amazing leader. They couldn’t ask for anyone else.
It looked like there was a new constellation in the sky.
The volcano rumbled in the distance.
And the Book Club continued to cry their hearts out for their lost friend.