Dododex

ARK: Survival Evolved & Ascended Companion

Ultimus Chapter Thirty-Three: Retreat to the Light

Andrew and Erica had been firing at these Rock Drakes that were attacking from flames beyond. But unlike with the previous ones, where it was an endless onslaught with no sight. This one was almost drip-fed. Most of the time, they were given three or four at a time, with a few seconds of breathing time before the next four or so came through. The same was happening with Paul and Jonathan. They were being fed the larger animals at a faster rate than Erica and Andrew. Which led Andrew and Erica to take a few shots at the few who ran out from Paul and Jonathan’s grasp. Andrew knew something was being planned, but he didn’t know what. He looked at this ‘Titan’. It merely stared at them in content.

Arrow after arrow, bullet after bullet, the corrupted creatures fell. Erica tried her best to tell Andrew what she knew about Rock Drakes, something Andrew had never seen before. She told him that they camouflage into their surroundings due to their scales having Element woven into them, but this camouflage only worked best when the animal was still. She told him to watch for shimmering movement, as that would be one running in its camouflage. Andrew was blown away by everything she was saying to him; he started getting lost in his thoughts as he hunted and spotted for these movements Erica had spoken of. Everything was insane to him. There were so many strange and alien creatures. Heck, he had never seen a “Reaper” before. That thing was totally alien to him. This world as a whole was so different from what it was. Yet to them, a Reaper was something they had seen before. But they had never seen the corruption or the gods of this world before. Did that mean the creatures like Reapers weren’t created by these gods, but by man? Andrew could at least see that, being the case, they were able to build giant space stations. Plus, dinosaurs roamed the Earth again, not to mention were well over their normal sizes that people like Andrew’s dad knew they could reach. What could stop them from making their own creatures that weren’t from any part of the past?

“Hey!! You doing okay?” Erica asked as she aimed and fired her rifle. Andrew snapped out of his thoughts and looked at Erica.

“I’m doing fine, just trying to process all of this.” He said. Andrew started observing his surroundings. He spotted a hidden Rock Drake, its scales truly glistening in the sun. He aimed with his bow and fired his bow at the creature’s chest. He released the string and let the bolt of energy fly and hit the animal where he wanted it to. The beast roared out before beginning to heave, and fell to the ground, dead. Andrew sighed as he looked around for a moment to see if he could spot another Rock Drake. None spotted, he sighed and took a quick moment to see how much energy he had left for his bow. He had enough for fifteen more shots. He paused as he took in the realization that they’d probably killed well over thirty or more animals as they stood there.

Andrew heard another high-pitched roar screech from behind. As he turned to see, he saw and heard the Reaper fall to the ground with a thunderous boom. Dust flew into the air as it crashed to the ground. Erica looked over her shoulder to see what had happened and swore at what she saw.

“FREYA!!!” Erica shouted. Both of them stood there holding their breath as they wondered what happened to their friend and companion on this journey. Angrboda stood and gazed into the dust cloud from a distance. And as the dust cleared, they saw Freya stand tall above the corpse of the Reaper. She held her one axe in her right hand and her sword in her left. She sheathed her axe back into the loop on her belt. She grabbed the axe that was still stuck inside the creature’s skull and sheathed it too. She started to stand up when Andrew noticed something strange. The blood that drenched her clothes started to foam and curdle into a reddish-green color. A moment later, she screamed out in pain. The cloud that once was beginning to dissipate began to return in a green hue. Beginning to overbear her and engulf everything around the giant monster.

“Erica, what’s going on?!”

“I don’t— the Reaper. She needs to get out of there!!” Erica said, shocked at what was occurring. “Freya!! GET AWAY FROM THE CLOUD NOW!!” Erica shouted. Freya nodded as she stood up and started getting away from the dead carcass.

“What?!”

“Look, Freya has only dealt with tamed Reapers, and none that were dead. Reaper blood is basically acid. And once dead, the blood is forced through any wounds into a noxious gas to burn its killer or any scavengers near it. So she needs to get out of there.” Erica told Andrew. He took a glance back to Freya to see she was struggling with trying to get off the monster’s head and out of the acid cloud. He didn’t think she would make it. He wished he could do something… could he do something?

He opened up Knight Sky’s saddle bags to see if he had his mask and goggles still with him. He couldn’t remember what he had done with them. He dug through the bags for a time, time he didn’t have. For a moment more, he dug through the bag until he finally found them. He grabbed them out of the bag and put them on as he had Knight Sky charge into the cloud of acid. Erica looked at Andrew, flabbergasted.

“What are you doing!!” Erica shouted. But Andrew didn’t answer. He had Knight Sky run into the acid cloud to get Freya. As he ran towards the cloud, he noticed the acid cloud had gotten thick enough that he could no longer see Freya from outside the cloud. He hoped that if he went in there, he could find her before it was too late.

As Andrew and Knight Sky went through the acid, he could feel the acid burn his skin. The pain felt like needles stabbing his skin. He could see his goggles thinning out as he had Knight Sky run through the fog. Even Knight Sky seemed to be acting up out of pain. But they needed to get Freya out of there. Knight Sky ran for a few moments before they finally came across the corpse of the creature. He finally saw Freya stumble and fall off the creature’s skull onto the ground. Andrew redirected Knight Sky towards the skull and Freya. Andrew held his breath as Knight Sky reached Freya. He couldn’t lose someone else. Not for something that was all his fault. Andrew reached out for Freya.

“Freya, can you see me?” Andrew asked at a higher volume. She looked up at Andrew, her eyes red from chemicals in the air. But the blue of her eyes beamed through as she nodded.

“Grab my hand and get on!!” Andrew as he reached his hand out for Freya. She grabbed hold of his hand as he pulled her up onto Knight Sky. He tapped Knight Sky into a gallop, and with a roar, the horse bolted out of the acid. As he ran, Andrew could feel the acid burning his skin around the small parts of his exposed face and neck. He could see the lens of his goggles thin out before his very eyes. But within a few moments of running in a direction away from the corpse, they had found their way out of the acid fog and back into the dust, and element filled air. Andrew took a moment to survey the surroundings of where he popped out. He saw that he popped out about the same place he had entered from. Being able to see Erica waving her arms to catch Andrew’s attention. Andrew nudged Knight Sky with his feet to redirect him in the direction of Erica. Afterwards, he looked back at Freya to see her burnt face. She looked up at him and smiled.

“Takk skal du ha,” She said. He could hear her pain as she spoke. And while he couldn’t understand, he knew a thank you when he heard one. She couldn’t see, but he smiled back. He was relieved that he got her out of there. He wished he had gotten to her sooner. The burns looked bad on her face and hands, and much of her armor and clothes were damaged. He knew she was gonna need Paul as soon as possible.

Andrew rode up to Erica and got off Knight Sky and aided Freya into a comfortable position on his saddle. Erica looked at Freya; her eyes widened with shock.

“Dear god…” she gasped.

“She needs Paul.” Andrew said. Erica looked dumbfounded.

“No… I thought the green pus and red colored skin on our pale Viking was a normal thing.” She said in a clearly sarcastic tone. She went back to her saddlebags, digging through them for something. Until she grabbed something and went back over to Freya. A bottle of reddish-brown liquid. She aided Freya in opening her mouth and helped her drink the strange liquid.

“There, that’ll help her until Paul can look at her safely.” Erica stated.

“Just go get him!” Andrew shouted. Erica rolled her eyes as she got on her sabertooth cat and ran towards Paul. Andrew just stood there, watching her and her sabertooth fly towards Paul. He looked back over at Freya, who was lying on the saddle horn and Knight Sky’s neck as she breathed heavily in pain. He looked back over to Erica and whispered in a worried tone.

“Hurry.”

~

Erica was pushing Ajax to run as fast as he could. Paul was further out than she had expected him to be. She knew every second mattered in this situation, but with how far away he was, she just wanted to curse. Of course he would be far away when someone needed his help. Especially a serious injury being the problem. Erica was only shouting distance away from Paul now. She could see Paul and Grace running circles around one of the corrupted Tyrannosauruses as he fired his pistol into the animal. All the while, Jonathan and his horse were sprinting around as he shot 10-gauge slugs point-blank into the head of the animals that charged their way. Running away as the animals' bodies collapsed to the ground and moved to the next one.

“Paul!!” Erica shouted. Paul looked back. He took the last shot needed to take the tyrannosaur down. With a thunderous crash, it fell, and the dust flew into the air. Paul rode the sprinting Grace over to Erica.

“What’s it, lass?” He asked.

“Freya, she’s injured. The Reaper fell to her, but she got trapped in the blood smoke. She has acid burns all over her. We need to retreat so you can treat her!” Erica said. Paul stayed calm, but Erica could tell he was upset. Grace began to turn towards the direction that Erica came.

“She with Andrew?” He asked. Erica nodded.

“Get Jonathan to follow; we’ll meet with Andrew and retreat to…?” He paused, insinuating that Erica would know. Erica took a minute to think before it finally clicked.

“Delta Tower, it should be a safe location to hide from whatever the h&#@ that is and its horde.” Erica said.

“Alright, we’ll follow ya ta Delta Tower then.” Paul said, riding away towards where she came. Erica sighed as she rode over in the direction she last saw Jonathan. He still was blasting corrupt creatures as he rode. She rode as close as she could before shouting.

“Jonathan! We need to retreat!”

“You are not in charge of when we retreat from a fight.” Jonathan returned as he shot a carno in the head.

“Jonathan!! Freya is injured! Paul needs to attend to her, and there are too many monsters attacking us here. We need to retreat!”

“Look around us; there are only a few more of these things left! No thanks to you! We can kill them and send a message, or I can. That is up to you.” Jonathan said as he went on to continue the fight. Erica sat there on Ajax for a moment before growling, loading her rifle and helping Jonathan with the last few creatures.

As per usual, Jonathan was right. There were only maybe four or five creatures left. Most were Paraceratheriums. It only took a few minutes to quickly shoot them all and leave nothing left. Jonathan cheered as he shot the last creature through the skull. There was a pause as he stared off into the shadowed wasteland. Erica stared at the creature that loomed above them. It just continued to stare at them. Its eyes were ever glowing with magenta. She didn’t like how it was still there; that didn’t mean anything good compared to what happened last time.

“Jonathan, we need to retreat now!” Erica said. Without warning, he began cursing, staring down the monster that towered above him.

“IS THAT THE BEST YOU CAN DO!! YOU LISTEN TO ME!! WE WILL WIN!! MAN WILL ALWAYS WIN AGAINST NATURE!! THAT IS THE LAW OF MAN!! MAN OVER NATURE!! YOU WILL DIE!!” Jonathan shouted. He continued shouting, cursing the creature. Erica seemed to be one of the two to notice that the monster was looking at them with disdain. Its eyes began to glow brighter than they had previously. Erica didn’t like where this was heading at all.

“Jonathan! We need to retreat now!” Erica shouted. Jonathan groaned as he turned back to Erica.

“Can’t you just leave me alone for five minutes to gloat? Can’t I just have that?” Jonathan snapped.

Roars began to fill the air once again. However, Erica could not recognize them. She looked over at Jonathan; he didn’t seem to recognize them either. They both turned their attention in the direction of the roars. However, all they could see was the fire that blazed from the dead. Until something large flew above the tall flames: a dragon. Erica's mouth dropped as she saw the dragon fly up from behind the wall of fire, with another, and another, and yet another. All three followed the first in the direction of Erica and Jonathan. The creature’s wings yanked it through the sky. Throwing every muscle it had into flying as fast as possible toward them.

“Oh, my god…” Jonathan gasped as they watched the first dragon spew fire from its mouth in their direction. Erica and Jonathan both had their mounts sprint away as the purple flames engulfed the ground where they once stood. Erica took out her rifle and took a shot at the dragon that flew over them. She heard the creature roar out in pain as the bullet flew from her barrel and struck the animal. Erica unloaded the cartridge of the bullet and loaded a new one as she turned around and looked back to see the other dragons coming in. Erica quickly evaded the explosive fire streaks of the beasts. Erica took another shot at one of the wyverns coming her way. Landing her shot fatally in the head of one. With a roar as the shot landed. The wyvern crashed to the ground. Erica could hear more gunfire as Jonathan was shooting two sprays of buckshot at the animals soaring above.

“Jonathan, we need to retreat!!” Erica shouted. Jonathan cursed at her with a vulgar term.

“We’ll retreat when I am good and winning. Right now I will fight until I kill every last one of them!” Jonathan said. More roars, screeches, and bellows started coming from the direction of where the dragons had come from. Erica looked to see more flying creatures coming their way. However, it didn’t look like the same type of dragons coming as before. But what really scared her was seeing an ominous brown fog roll into the fires.

As soon as they touched, a large explosion went off, and the gas went up in a small cloud of flames and smoke. This explosion extinguished the flames of the Napalm and revealed what was behind the wall of fire. Monsters, true kaijus. One like the gargantuan that towered above them started emerging from the napalm flames unfazed. They were themselves enormous compared to everything they had fought up to this point. They were hideous-looking yellows and browns and almost looked as though they were made of sulphur. Large and strange tubes that looked almost like large cannons on top of these monsters' backs. Several roared, their lower jaws splitting out to the side like a snake’s. They started charging Erica and Jonathan along with the flying reptiles. Erica turned to Jonathan.

“Do you really want to fight off that Jonathan?! We need to go!” Erica shouted. Jonathan looked over and saw the horde that had formed and was charging them. His eyes widened before he said.

“I think I’ll take your advice on retreating now…”

~

Andrew watched as he saw Paul ride over on his dinosaur and jump off to check out Freya’s injuries. He looked at the burns on her arm and her face before letting out a hiss of sympathy.

“Is it alright, lass, if I touch yer face ta check yer eyes? I’m a have ta open up yer eyes forcefully to see it completely.” Paul asked. Freya nodded.

“Ja, selvfølgelig kan du det. Du er min helbreder, og jeg trenger deg mer enn noensinne.” Freya said. With that, Paul gently touched her face around her right eye and slowly pulled back her eyelids from her eye. Freya jolted a bit and seethed as he did this.

“It’s alright, hen, just take a look around in every direction ya can.” Paul said, and Freya did so. Paul did the same with Freya’s left eye.

As he did this. There was a loud boom came from where Erica and Jonathan had been. Andrew looked over his shoulder to see what happened. He could see a puff of smoke rise in the distance, and he saw Jonathan and Erica riding at them at full speed. Andrew heard Erica shout, “PAUL, ANDREW, GET BACK ON TAMES NOW!!!”.

“RETREAT TO DELTA TOWER NOW!!!” She continued. Andrew wondered what was the cause of this for a moment before getting his answer. The sky filled with shadows of flying pterosaurs and dragons! On the ground followed a new sea of corrupted creatures chasing them. Andrew looked at Paul with deep concern. Paul saw the same thing.

“I think she’s right, Paul…”

“Aye, Andrew, she is.” Paul answered. Both immediately ran to their mounts. Andrew helped Freya move back on his saddle.

“Vent, Angrboda, vi må få tak i henne.” Freya moaned. Andrew didn’t know what she was asking, except that it had something to do with Angrboda. It suddenly dawned on him. Where was Angrboda? He surveyed the area to see Angrboda eating the corpse of the reaper. The cloud of blood and dust had long since subsided. That was what she needed.

“If I ride over to her, can you get her to follow?” Andrew asked as he looked back to Freya. She nodded in agreement.

“Hvis du kan få meg nær nok, kan jeg komme meg oppå henne og ri henne tilbake til et trygt sted.” Freya said. Andrew took that as a yes. Paul, though, looked back in confusion.

“Wait, what?”

“Alright, let's go get her.” Andrew said as he got Knight Sky into a gallop.

“Andrew!! Wait!!!” But Paul’s pleas were too late. Andrew and Freya both rode back towards the dead Reaper to get Angrboda.

It only took Andrew a few moments to reach Angrboda. It was much easier to reach her without the giant cloud of acid around the corpse. Andrew stopped Knight Sky and looked back at Freya.

“Alright, do your thing to get her to follow.” Andrew stated. Freya smiled as she looked at Andrew.

“Nei, jeg følger deg tilbake på henne.” She said. Soon, Freya started getting off of Knight Sky.

“What are you doing?!” Andrew yelled. She hobbled her way over towards Angrboda. But Andrew rode Knight Sky in front of her.

“Freya!! Just call her.” Andrew said. She paused for a moment. Before she started going around Knight Sky. Again, though, Andrew rode Knight Sky ahead of her.

“Freya…” She looked up at him with frustration as he stood in her way. She held up her hand in front of his face. Expressing her wish for him to stop. She pointed in the direction of where the horde was coming from, and back at Angrboda. Afterwards, she started hobbling around Andrew and Knight Sky again over towards Angrboda. She whistled at Angrboda; Angrboda looked over at her and lowered herself down to the ground into a sitting position. Freya walked to Angrboda and started climbing up onto her saddle. Angrboda stood up with Freya staring down at Andrew.

“Hva venter du på? Kom deg til de andre!!” Freya shouted as she pointed towards Paul and the others running from the horde. Andrew knew what she had said, even through the language barrier. It amazed him how strong-willed she was.

The two rode in haste to reach the others before having to deal with the horde. It was going to be close, but it looked like they would make it. However, Erica and her Sabertooth changed direction and started heading along the edge of the cliff. The others were not too far behind. Andrew and Freya were on a ridge not too far ahead of Erica and the others. However, the only way down to them would put them in danger’s way. But they had no time to hesitate. Both Andrew and Freya immediately went down the ridge as quickly as they could. Andrew looked at the horde of monsters coming their way. Within this horde of corrupted creatures were, in fact, true monsters. Creatures that looked like the giant Titan that watched them. They were on all fours, and they had what looked like they were covered in sulphur, and they had cannons on their backs. He watched as a couple had stopped and started emitting a gas out of their mouths and blanketed the ground, and nearly reached where the ridge path met the road they needed to get onto. Now Andrew and Freya couldn’t see anything or anyone through the brown gas. Andrew and Freya got on the path they were heading and paused. Holding their breath as they watched and listened.

Suddenly, Jonathan and his horse appeared out of the smoke, coughing and hacking. It shocked Andrew so much he screamed. Jonathan was likewise shocked, so much so that he pulled on the reins of his horse too hard to stop. Causing his horse to stop and rear up, with Jonathan unexpectedly falling off his horse. Before any of them could react, his horse bolted up the ridge Andrew and Freya had just come down. Jonathan began shouting in French at Andrew, with Freya speaking her tongue at Jonathan. It was all confusing for Andrew.

Erica and Paul emerged from the smoke, coughing. They both stopped as soon as they saw Jonathan on the ground.

“What happened?” Paul asked worriedly. But before anyone could answer, Erica interjected.

“THAT DOESN’T MATTER!! JONATHAN, GET ON GRACE!!! THEY ARE RIGHT BEHIND US!!!!” Erica shouted as she started bolting. Jonathan didn’t even want to argue. He bolted for Grace; Paul held his hand out and helped Jonathan up. And without hesitation, they all ran.

Andrew and the others sprinted far from the smoke. He looked back to see the large horde and the Titan that watched them this entire time. Andrew’s breath quickened in fear as he saw the monster smile as his legion chased them, and as they got further away from him. His body slowly disappeared. Vanishing into the air in magenta lights, like he was never there. This terrified Andrew. For a moment, his mind wandered to what happened to the Titan. But he shook his head out of it. He needed to focus on the situation at hand; he looked back to see how far behind the horde was. And he was surprised to see they weren’t as far behind them as he had hoped. They needed to figure out a way to give them enough distance to escape the horde. But he had no idea where they were going. He knew the path only had two routes, but he had no idea where Delta Tower was. He needed to get to Erica and ask. He pushed Knight Sky to run faster; Knight Sky obliged. Soon passing the others and got close enough for Andrew and Erica to talk.

“Where is Delta Tower?” Andrew shouted as he rode by her side. She looked over at him and pointed over her shoulder.

“Delta Tower is that large building built in the hillside there,—” She immediately pointed at the natural stone arch that had come to be who knows when. “—and we’re gonna take that arch.” Erica shouted. Andrew knew exactly where she was talking about. He had been through there with Ruben several times over. Though it was usually more of a dangerous trek out with the larger carnivorous dinosaurs. And he had taken the bridge across the canyon plenty of times. Nothing usually was on there besides the few herbivores or small annoying corrupted carnivores that took its trails. He looked back, though seeing the large swarming horde behind them, not ceasing their chase of them. And he had doubts they would stop chasing if they crossed the bridge or even reached Delta Tower. They had to do something to make them stop.

“Do you still have any napalm?” Andrew asked while yelling. Erica looked at him, confused about why he was bringing this up.

“I got one, but I got the resources to make more. Why? Need to blow something— oh…” she shouted as it all clicked. Andrew nodded as she still looked at him.

“We need to stop on the bridge halfway, and light the napalm across the entire walk of the bridge. Hopefully that will deter them for long enough and maybe kill enough that we can escape from their sight of chase.” Andrew suggested. Erica nodded.

“Will do. How many arrows do you have left?” She asked. Andrew remembered that he had enough element shards for fifteen regular arrows. Not enough for more than one explosive arrow.

“I only got one explosive arrow.” Andrew answered.

“But you got flame arrows set on that bow, right?” Erica asked. “Just use that.” Andrew looked at her, confused about what she asked.

“Yeah, it does. But the napalm isn’t explosive enough to cover the whole bridge in fire if I hit it with a flame arrow.” Andrew pointed out. Erica looked at him with irritation.

“I got a Physics degree and a PHD Engineering. I know it won’t be combustible enough,” She growled as she pulled out a few grenades from her saddle bag. “That’s why I’ll tie these and Napalm containers together to give that explosive yield.” She added, sticking them back. Andrew’s eyes widened at the realization she was a walking armory.

“That’ll work.”

“Good, now we’re gonna have to stop and throw these just as the horde gets close enough that they can’t stop without either falling off or dying in the flames.” Erica said. Andrew looked at her with worry on his face.

“How close is close?”

“Close enough that I’ll have to join in and do some skeet shooting on some of these bombs to speed up the process.” Erica said. Andrew let out a worrisome hum as they continued to ride on.

Some time passed as the group reached the large stone arch. As they ran across, Andrew looked back to see the horde actually had dropped some distance, but the terrors in the sky didn’t. The dragons and other flying reptiles followed at about the same distance they had been. Andrew realized that they didn’t plan how to deal with the flyers. But as he was about to mention it, Erica yanked on her Saber’s reins, and he started skidding to a stop. It was show time. He pulled Knight Sky’s reins, and like Ajax, he stopped. Andrew watched as Paul, Jonathan, and Freya stopped. All three of them stopped as they saw both Andrew and Erica stopping.

“What’re ya two doin’!!” Paul shouted. Erica looked back at him as she grabbed everything they needed from her saddlebags.

“Just get to the tower!! We’re gonna give us all a big, hopefully permanent breathing gap between us and the monsters.” Erica said. Paul and Freya on their mounts seemed hesitant. They almost started getting off of their mounts before Erica snapped her head back to them as she held the grenades and the napalm bombs she had left.

“GO!! We’ll meet you three at the tower!!” She snapped. Immediately, Paul and Freya both tightened their positions on their saddles. For a moment, they watched, hoping they could do something before sprinting off in defeat. Leaving Andrew and Erica to fend for themselves. Andrew was beginning to sweat as he watched the horde come closer and closer. That didn’t scare him as much as the swarm of flying creatures coming for them. He looked at Erica, who was binding the last of the grenades and napalm bombs.

“How are we gonna deal with the flyers?” Andrew finally asked. Erica looked at him with a scowl. She looked into the sky and stared for a moment

“How many you suppose there are, 50? 60?” Erica asked. Andrew looked up again. He thought it could be 60, maybe at most 80.

“Around 70 maybe? Why are we caring how many there are?” Andrew asked.

“So I know how many bullets I’ll have to craft later to replenish. I went through over 100 today. This will probably make it 150, maybe 200, depending on how many you get with your wooden bow and how many we miss.” Erica answered. Andrew nodded, worried about everything that was about to go down.

“So, after we blow up the bridge, we’re gonna sit here and shoot the flyers?” Andrew asked.

“Oh god, no. Hell No. Once we light this bridge, we’re bolting. Your grip good enough to shoot horseback? Your sweaty hands aren’t gonna be a problem? ” Erica asked sarcastically. Andrew wasn’t really in the mood for it, though.

“I’ll manage.”

“Good, cause it’s time to burn this bridge down.” Erica said as she looked at the horde’s distance. Andrew looked and saw that Erica wasn’t kidding; they had to be close. The horde no longer looked as one body, but dozens of different creatures. All with each individual looks to themselves. He activated his bow and set it to the flame arrow setting. And as soon as she saw he was ready, she started throwing the explosive napalm. Andrew raised his bow and aimed, and released his arrows as he repeated this as she continued throwing. He didn’t watch the arrows hit their target— but then again, when you're hearing explosions and seeing flashes of light out the corner of your eyes. You didn’t really need to guess that you were hitting the ball. He could hear the screeches and panic of the creatures charging into the unexpected wall of flames.

Within the few moments, they had covered most of the bridge in flames. Leaving only one gap in the wall between

“Last one!!” Erica shouted. She threw it in the air and ran for her Saber. Andrew watched it for a minute to make sure it was positioned in the air right before he aimed and fired. Watching the arrow fly and hit its mark. The explosion was massive as the napalm lit, causing a super bright flash of light as a fireball landed in the opening and several creatures that had tried running through just moments before. Their bodies lit ablaze as the napalm stuck to their bodies. Their screams and howls filled the air as they collapsed to the ground and died from the extreme heat. Andrew watched as more creatures started running through the fire, unable to stop in time to save themselves from the fire. He heard even more screeching from the other side, either getting too close or falling off the bridge. He tried to stare through the bright wall of fire to see what he could see; at first he couldn’t see anything. But as his eyes adjusted, he could only see the glowing magenta eyes that stared right back at him. Hundreds upon hundreds of glowing eyes. All of them staring through the fire, before they dimmed and disappeared. He really hated that creature, but he hoped that was a sign for something.

“Andrew!!” Erica screamed before she fired off her rifle. Andrew snapped out of it just in time to scream as a giant pterosaur dropped right in front of him.

“Let’s go!! Before you die to a dragon!!” Erica shouted. Andrew looked up to see the swarm of flyers begin to charge. He looked at his Tek Bow and saw he had no arrows left. He ran out of element shards.

“Terrific—” he muttered under his breath as he sprinted for Knight Sky. He ran as he heard Erica’s rifle ring out several more times. As he reached Knight Sky, he grabbed his wooden bow and an arrow. He aimed at the closest scaly creature to him. Which wasn’t too far from him, a small flying lizard with a large head and big teeth snapped its jaw at him. He released the arrow and shot it through the chest, and flew past as he heard it hit the ground.

Andrew continued to wait and shoot for the smaller flying reptiles that came at them. While Erica mainly focused on the dragons that flew and attacked at range with their breath, which was becoming more and more of a hazard as they dodged the red and purple flames of these dragons. They had been sitting there for a moment, killing the flying swarm. Succeeding in killing most of the dragons and quite a good portion of the other smaller ones. Andrew saw Erica take her eyes off the sky, looking at the looming wall of fire.

“Okay, it’s time we go.” Erica stated. Andrew shot an arrow at one of the larger pterosaurs before looking at Erica.

“We still got a ton of these flying lizards!!”

“And if we stay, we might deal with large land lizards and other monsters. We’re going now. Kill the flyers on the way.” Erica commanded. Andrew didn’t argue. He switched his grip as Knight Sky sprinted down the bridge. Erica was straddling her running Saber backwards as she aimed her rifle into the sky. Aiming at the last few dragons.

Both of them killed several more of the flying demons that chased them, but Andrew knew they would not be able to kill them all before making it to Delta Tower. But they could at least kill the last of the dragons that were being a hazard. He aimed at the last dragon that was chasing them. Holding his breath as he tried to control the shaking coming from the jostling of Knight Sky running. He got his shot, and— Andrew released the string and missed as he was startled when Erica’s rifle went off, and the dragon dropped and disappeared below with her killing blow. He looked over at her, and she looked over at him and gave a smug smile. However, Andrew focused back up before he could react. He grabbed another arrow and aimed into the sky, just to see the flying creatures dispersing across the Sulphur Fields and Wasteland.

Not a single one was chasing them anymore. He looked at Erica to see if she knew what this meant, but she was looking at him, flabbergasted at what just happened.

“Do—do you have anything? Cause I don’t.” Erica finally said. Andrew shook his head, still in shock.

“I was hoping you would.”

Andrew looked out to the wasteland and sulphur fields where they dispersed. He didn’t understand why they left or what this meant for the other monsters. But he was just relieved they stopped. Andrew looked back to the road they would have to take to get to Delta Tower, and he and Erica rode their way there in silence.