Chapter 1: Swamp Snail

This is the official remake of Journey Through All Creatures’ first chapter.

Original Post Date: Oct. 5, 2024

Note, story starts in Achatina, The Island ABC order for Section I and has a Prologue. Prologue is in the same section as this. Next chapter in Allosaurus.

It was late into the afternoon. The sun had begun drifting to the west horizon. Just north of the swamp was a small, 2 by 2 thatch hut with a bed and storage box inside. All that lay outside was a campfire. It was far from the deep and thick jungle, close to the ocean shore. Then the door swung open. A survivor walked out of it, holding a bola and a club. The survivor walked south towards the swamp, looking around the area.

“Okay.. first creature on my list should be around here somewhere…” The survivor said. He continued walking until he reached the swamp waters, the thick and low-hanging trees, and multiple snakes and dilos. Then there it was: The Achatina. The first of many creatures that Sodden would need to kill on his journey. Sodden then crept up behind a snail slowly sliding towards the water. He threw a bola at it and then beat it repeatedly with his club. Then he heard quiet hissing behind him and turned around quickly. He shouted as he saw a snake going towards him. He then slammed his club into the snake’s head and shot it down with a bow. Then he turned back to the snail, who was hiding in the shell. He beat it over and over until the snail fell unconscious, then he shot it down with the bow. Sodden nodded and turned back around to return to his base.

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I hope you enjoyed this remake. It’d be good to give this more points than the original, just so it’s easier to find it, especially considering how much Achatina is used. Anyway, that’s all.

-RelatingHen8906

Before the survivors of ARK existed, there was the Creator. He created the survivors and brought them into the world, or should I say the Arks. Survivors had the freedom to do what they want, choose their own path. But some people wanted to be evil and take away freedom. And the Creator brought the Prime Heart, a powerful artifact that could control survivors. It could also create survivors and create hearts to control them. In the wrong hands, it could spell disaster. And in the wrong hands it was. People used it to create the Assassin Heart, an artifact connected to the Prime and survivors created by it. And using the Assassin Heart, a group of people created a tribe of these monsters with no freedom to do what they wanted, forced to follow the path they had been given. That group who made the heart wanted people in the Assassin Tribe, otherwise known as the C tribe. Survivors created by the heart itself were not able to leave the path they were given. If they died they couldn’t respawn. If the heart connected to the group it creates was destroyed, all survivors created by that heart would die off. But not people who joined that group. They wouldn’t die, but they would be free. People were forced into it. One survivor, Serenity, had her freedom taken away when she was forced to join the C tribe. She had almost no memories of her freedom, but she knew no one deserved this. She wanted people to be free. And when Soddon arrived, he would soon become the one…

Chapter 1 was released a few days ago. It’s in this section.

-RelatingHen8906

Chapter 25c: Ascension Is Here

The Grand Sectional Finale!!!

Story starts in Achatina, The Island ABC order for Section I and has a Prologue. Last chapter in Thylacoleo. This is the third and FINAL section for Chapter 25, the Section I Finale!!! Last section in the bosses. Next chapter in Fasolasuchus and all chapters 26-37.5 will be in Scorched Earth Exclusives!! ENJOY THE END!!

85 minutes before Ascension…

The Argies arrived back at Nudon for the last time. They touched down near the castle, and to the left, there was a long line of 40 creatures, in rows of 4 extending from one wall to the other, and even outside the wall. The gate was open and Rexes and Theris sat outside of it. Sodden and Red, along with the others, walked to the castle and some people came out. “Hi, Sodden. My name’s Sal and this is my friend Nal. Got the names because of us spawning at the same time, which like never happens. It only happens either when at least 10 people leave or 2 people die permanently. So, yeah, it’s rare. Anyway, we’ve got all the supplies. We’re ready to go.” Nal said. “Okay. Well, what you got?” Sodden said. “We’ve got the soups that’ll help you with the heat in the cave and the cold in the hall and arena. We made a ton for you guys.” Sal said. “Good. You can just take the element. It’ll be safer with you guys.” Sodden said. He then took out the pile of around 700 element and gave it to Sal. Sal nodded and walked in, then Nal took out a pile of 30 different soups, some for different people. Sodden took some, and Rod, Red, Serenity, and Dorack took some too. They put the supplies in their bags. “Okay. We have a group of otters you can use. I hear Red’s leaving with you guys?” Nal said. “Uh, not yet. It’s not really decided.” Red said. “Well, Red is great here. I don’t know if he should leave. You know, Nal is great with metal, and also the grinding and everything. Nal helped a lot with, well, everything we’ve been through. I think she’s the one who should come.” Sodden said. “Wha… what… what are you… shut up!” Nal yelled. “Dude, it’d be great for you to join them! They’d appreciate your help.” Dorack said. Nal looked around, then looked at Sodden. She then took out some cryopods, which all had an otter in them. “Okay. How about we get going?” Nal said as she handed the cryopods to the others. They took one cryopod and Nal kept one of them, then they all walked out of the open behemoth gate, which had 4 Rexes standing in the gateway, and walked to the front group of 6 Rexes and 2 Theris. They got on and whistled. Red looked back and said, “Okay. Everything we’ve done for us, for Sodden, for JTAC has led up to this. The time has come. The Tek Cave and the Overseer are the last obstacles in the road to ascension. Once we clear them out, we will cross the finish line into Scorched Earth. We will take a large step towards our true goal!” Everyone cheered, then the Rexes and Theris started walking out of the base and turned around. They walked around the volcano and towards the slope where the path sat.

After around 10 minutes, they finally reached the path. The group trekked around the volcano and towards the path, and started walking up the path. The Rexes were easily following, and some people stood next to the Rexes, clearing out rocks as they approached them. That way, they would continue smoothly and not have to be slowed down by any rocks. The Rexes began to walk up the path. The people that cleared out rocks were running around, hacking their god pickaxes at rocks and clearing them out, then they dropped the junk they got from the rocks so it wouldn’t encumber them. The Rexes were easily walking up, and the group was looking around at the land. “Wow. I can’t believe we’re really at the end. We’re about to leave.” Sodden said. “Yeah. Uh… what’s that weird cow over there?” Rod asked as he pointed to the lone tree nearby. There was a Chalico nearby. “Uh… it’s a Chalico… a lot of people forget about them. Including me. I never killed that. Give me a second.” Sodden said. He then hopped off the Rex and ran to the tree, took out a shotgun, and pulled the trigger. It was a low level, so it died easily. Sodden then walked back to his Rex and got on, then put his shotgun back. The Rex and Theri army kept walking. “You’re right. Chalicos are pretty cool, but since their taming method is like, really weird, and they’re not really that useful, a lot of survivors don’t even remember its existence.” Nal said. “True. Once a friend got ambushed by that thing and was like, “Oh, what is this stupid thing? Are there aliens now?” And it was just a Chalico. A lot of people just forget it.” Dorack said. “Yeah. That’s true.” Sodden said. “But, you know. It’s good to see things and just remember they exist. Instead of just forgetting they’re around. And just in time too.” Serenity said. Sodden nodded. The Rexes turned around at every bend, and the people cleared out every rock, and the path was clear to walk up. Then after like 3 minutes, they had arrived. The first Rexes began to leak through the narrow path into the volcano’s peak. The lava lake, the tall walls where Gigas can glitch into and suffocate quickly, but the one thing that stood out was the large tek door on the other end, with a diamond-shaped crystal on the top and a podium just before it. The large door stood tall too. The Tek Cave. The penultimate obstacle in the road to Ascension. The Rexes began walking close to it. The front stopped just on the podium, but the Rexes had curved because of the lava lake, and only two Rexes stood on the narrow path and two Theris below them. The line extended from the door to the crater entrance, and even outside of it. Sodden and his group sat on the front of the group. Sodden got off, as did Rod, Serenity, Red, Sal, Dorack, and Nal. “Okay, everyone! We have arrived! The two who helped clear the rocks, Delna and Ricky, thank you a lot. And these two will help us massively with leading our massive group of creatures into the base. Denine should be coming soon. Ah, there she is.” Red said. Then a pteranodon flew from the side of the volcano, the south of it and into the crater. The pteranodon went to the podium and Denine jumped off of it. “Guys, good luck. See you soon.” Denine said as she walked to Sodden. Sodden nodded, then hugged her. She had gotten almost to full health and had come to say bye. Denine let go and took out something from her bag. The red meteor. The orange streaks. The black metal. The god shotgun. “Use this to destroy the overseer. It’s the only way to destroy the metal all implants are made of.” Denine said. “Okay. I’ll keep it safe.” Sodden said. He then took it and put it in his bag. “Well, you’ve got some business to attend to… so…” Denine said. “Yeah. See you soon, dude.” Sodden said. Then he hugged Denine one last time. The sun’s position allowed the crater’s shadows to stretch across the group and most of the lake.” Sodden let go, then Denine walked back to her pteranodon, got on, took off then went back to the base. Red then looked at the Rexes. “Okay, everyone. We’ve come so far. And now we’re here. Once we enter the tek cave, we will get the army in, one by one. Then when we do that, we’ll be going through, using our soups to protect against the heat, and using our shotgun and creatures to clear out the dinos in the cave. Also, we have a big cave so we gotta hurry if we wanna ascend in 70 minutes. And when we get to the teleporter, we will send in the entire army, and everyone that’s not coming will stay out of the portal. And when the portal teleports the group to the overseer, we’ll be teleported back to the cave entrance. Dorack, you’re thinking of a plan, right?” Red said. Dorack nodded. “Okay. We’ve come so far, done so much, and now we are here. The final stretch. Are you ready for the final battle!?” Red yelled. Everyone cheered. Sal walked up to the terminal device and opened its inventory. The screen showed the three difficulties for the cave. Sodden walked up to the device and took out the Alpha Broodmother trophy. He put it in the terminal, then took out the Alpha Megapitcheus trophy. He placed it in the terminal. Then he took out the Alpha Dragon trophy and put it in the terminal. Sal took out the Alpha Raptor claw, the Alpha Carno arm, the Alpha Rex tooth, the Alpha Mosa tooth, the Alpha Megalodon fin, the Alpha Leedsicthysis blubber, and the Alpha Tuso eye. He put all of them in the terminal. Sodden’s hand hovered over the red button that would activate the Alpha Tek Cave. “Okay. No going back when we press this button. The cave will open and we’ll only have 5 minutes to get everyone in! So get ready to move.” Red said. Everyone burst into yells of cheer. “Okay. 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1…” Sodden said. Then he smacked the red button and it began. The ground rumbled and the tek cave door started glowing red. Then it hissed open and red steam came from the edges. “You now have five minutes to get any tame you wish to bring inside.” The terminal said in a computerized voice. Then Sodden and the others got on the front Rexes and Theris, and Red whistled for everyone to start walking in. Sodden and the others took out the soups that would help them stay warm, and they took off the lids and drank them down. Then they put the lids back on and put them back in the bag. The Rexes and Theris together went down the path towards the cave, and there was a group of Allos and purlovias on the path. Sodden took out his shotgun and hopped onto the back of a Theri that was walking behind it, then ran to the Allos and shot them down. With four shots, they died easily. It made quick work of the purlovias, who had decided to leap out at the Rexes, but they jumped at the wrong army. When the Allos were down, the army kept going. At the entrance, the line was slowly but surely pouring into the cave tunnels. The very back of the line was at the crater’s narrow entrance where only one creature at a time could go through. But the creatures were easily getting through, just very slowly. And the creatures in the front were easily clearing out creatures. But with no Yuty to assist them, they were going to have to get through this themselves. “Well, this is pretty straightforward. We just gotta stay alert and keep moving. And we’ll be fine.” Sodden said. Red and Dorack nodded. Sodden sat on a Theri which was behind the Rex, who Dorack had jumped to. Behind Dorack was Rod and Serenity, who both sat on two Rexes. Each row going through the cave had two Rexes and one Theri. In total, there were 24 Rexes, 16 Theris, and two Daedons that were safely stored in Red’s bag. Red would give them to Sodden when they got to the teleporter. The shotgun was easily clearing out Allos, Sabers, Terror Birds, and the Rexes were getting purlovias out and destroyed. But soon, when they reached the first large room, they ran into a problem. “Uh, guys?” Dorack said. The others looked into the room, and next to the tall pillar and the lava pit just below the path, there was a Giganotosaurus. “Ugh. Do we just push that into the lava?” Red asked. “Hold on. It’s not doing anything. It’s eyes aren’t even budging.” Sodden said. He squinted at the Giga, and saw its head wasn’t even moving, and neither were its eyes. As if it was stuck in the wall. “Just how physics work in this cave, I guess.” Sodden said. “Okay, well, let’s just make sure we’re careful. That’s a level 620 beast of Death.” Rod said. “Yeah.” Nal said. Sal and Nal sat on the Rexes just behind Serenity and Rod. The line had mostly gotten into the cave. The Rexes were doing fine getting through, and so were the Theris. But there was only two minutes left before the cave door closed and there were still 11 creatures that were yet to get in. At the door, there were Rexes being attacked by some purlovias, and it was jamming the entrance. The Rexes stomped around, and it caused the Theris and Rexes outside the cave to have a hard time getting in. Then one of the Rexes clipped their foot into the door and instantly got launched into the sky. “What the heck? Okay, well, not gonna question that. Red, we’re one Rex down.” Someone in the back said, using his implant to talk to Red. Red sighed and looked at Sodden. “We’re having some problems at the entrance. That might slow us down by a lot.” Red said. “Well, we don’t want that.” Sodden said. He started walking forward and the army followed him. “Okay, then.” Red said. He followed along. The Rexes at the front were destroying the creatures and being able to follow. They walked from the entrance down the path, and the creatures were easily able to enter with only one minute remaining. The terminal then let out an alarm. “One minute remaining.” The army easily got in, and even after that little jam at the start, the group was able to get in easily. The line kept walking down the path. The front was able to just stay against the wall and make it past the frozen Giga with no problems. And the path was easy too. Even when there were Allos and Rexes attacking, the shotgun made quick work of them and no one got pushed into the lava. And then suddenly, an alarm went off. “Tek door closing. Good luck.” Then the door hissed as it closed down. There was no going back now.

50 minutes before Ascension…

The line was clearing out a ton of creatures. In most rooms, the Rexes and Theris in the front were clearing out creatures like the Rexes, Allos, Theris, Kapros, Megalnias, Purlovias, and a lot of others. Sometimes, some Rexes would get stuck attacking other creatures, but the people in the back helped a lot with the line staying stable. Even sometimes, the group would run into an Alpha or a Giga, but either they pushed them into lava or shot them down with the god shotgun. The cave was going very well for most of the time. Then came the final room. There was a Giga at the end of the path and the start of the Hall, the last room before the teleporter. It was going to be really cold, but they had another thing. Sodden led his army down the path, towards the Giga standing at the end. The Giga turned around to the Hall and his back was to the army coming for him. Then one of the front Rexes ran at the Giga quickly and rammed the Giga in its leg, causing it to roar and turn around its head, then when it was trying to turn around, it tripped and its neck hit the edge of the path, right above the lava pool. The Rexes shoved the Giga into the lava and it fell in, causing it to screech as it started drowning and getting ripped apart. Then the army went straight for the hall, and the people who were in the front took out some other soups, this time some that would help them stay warm. They drank form the soups, put them back, then kept going. The long line of creatures were very easily getting through everything and were able to get into the hall easily. The creatures began walking in rows of 7 Rexes and 4 Theris, and with that, they had arrived at the teleporter. All the creatures walked towards the podium. Then when they got there, all the creatures walked around the Rexes and towards the front, so that all 40 creatures would be on the podium. And after a minute, they were able to fit everyone on. Then Sodden and the others hopped off and walked to the device. “Okay. This is it. The end of the journey. That button will send us straight to the arena, then after we beat the Overseer, we’ll leave.” Sodden said. “True. Okay. Last call for any supplies or anything you need.” Red said to the others. Then Nal and Sal walked to the teleporter. “Oh, man. Who knows how long you’ll be away?” Sal said. Nal looked at him and sighed. “We’ll be back.” Nal said as she put her hand on Sal’s back. They hugged each other, then Sal walked out of the circle. Red looked at Sodden and hugged him. “See you later, dude.” Sodden said. Red nodded. Then Red let go and walked out of the circle. “Okay. You ready!?” Sodden yelled. Everyone cheered. Then Sodden hit the button on the device, and an alarm went off. “Teleporting to Overseer arena in one minute.” Then the surrounding area became red and a red dome began to form around the group. This was it. The final stretch. The final battle for Ascension.

“46, 45, 44, 43, 42, 41, 40, 39, 38, 37, 36, 35, 34, 33, 32, 31, 30, 29, 28, 27, 26, 25, 24, 23, 22,, 21, 20. 19…” Red looked at Sodden for a while. “I’ll miss you, dude.” Sodden said. Red nodded. “Introduce me to the Rhino and Anky when I get back.” Sodden said. Red nodded. “Good luck on Scorched Earth.” He said. Sodden nodded. “4, 3, 2, 1…” Then suddenly, the red dome collapsed and a huge white light filled the room, then Red and everyone who wasn’t in the portal was teleported back to the cave entrance. The ones who were in the portal were condensed into a massive ball of white light, then it was launched out of the cave and up from the volcano. Red and his group was at the cave entrance, looking up at the ball. The ball accelerated faster until it left the Ark dome and went to the large base above the whole Ark, held up by the three poles. The base inhabited the Overseer. The ball went onto the podium at the start of the Hall of History. Then Sodden got onto a Theri and whistled for all the Rexes to follow. Serenity, Rod, Dorack, and Nal sat on the Rexes near him. The army marched towards the room where the Overseer sat. They got into the room, and when they approached the center, the door rumbled then closed down slowly. Then suddenly, the hologram of the Island disappeared and in its place came the Overseer. When it summoned itself, it immediately roared and summoned some defense units. “Okay. Use the shotguns to destroy the attack drones. Send some Rexes to handle the defense units. The rest will attack the Overseer.” Sodden said. Everyone nodded. Then Serenity and Rod led some Rexes, like 9, to go lead the defense units away and start destroying them. Dorack and Nal took out their shotguns and started shooting the attack drones down before they could get a chance to attack. Sodden looked around, and saw that the Overseer started to release its lasers. Everyone stood between them, and some of the Rexes were hit but didn’t take too much damage. Sodden led the rest of the army to attack the Overseer, and they were biting through the metal, starting to decimate some of the Overseer’s 200,000 HP. But it could change into the other bosses and that would cause the battle to last a while.

After a few minutes, the Overseer put up its shield, then started to shapeshift into the Broodmother. “Okay. Just go all in on it.” Sodden said. The Rexes continued to decimate the boss, and the minions. The battle was going good for most of the time.

Even though it lasted a while.

But near the end, it started to get bad.

7 minutes before Ascension…

THE END IS NEAR…

The Overseer was at 14K HP. But it would not stop shapeshifting into other bosses. Dorack, Nal, Rod, and Serenity were using some injured Rexes. Sodden, who led both the Rexes and Theris, had some very injured Theris too. The Overseer morphed into a Dragon, which had a quarter of its health. Then Sodden led his army to decimate the Dragpn, then it roared a fire breath that did a ton of damage to the Rexes. Thankfully, the Broodmother never used the super acid and the Dragon never used its lava breath, which is the reason why their Yuty is out of commission. Serenity and Rod were attacking the drones and Defense Units, but their Rexes were slowing down and running out of energy. “Come on! We’re almost done.” Dorack said. “We can do this!” Sodden yelled from across the room. Then his group killed the Dragon, but some of the Rexes began to fall unconscious. Sodden managed to get the Overseer to 9K HP, but then it did something terrible. It shapeshifted again! It became the Broodmother this time. It had quarter health, then went to the Theris and hissed as it spit a huge acid at Sodden’s Theri. It screeched in pain and fell over. The Rexes got the Broodmother away. Sodden hopped off and looked at his Theri, which had a hole in his body. “Oh, god. Get it! Now!!” Sodden yelled. He took out the god shotgun, and when he had an opening and the Rexes were done surrounding the Broodmother, Sodden pulled the trigger six times and the Broodmother collapsed. Then it morphed back into the Overseer, and Sodden reloaded his shotgun. He pointed it at the Overseer. “I came to this Ark to do something. And no matter it be killing all creatures or destroying the Assassin Heart or both, I came here for a mission…” Sodden said, his voice rising, then he pulled the trigger once. “And I will finish it!!” Sodden yelled. He pulled the trigger one last time. Then the Overseer let out one last scream as it decomposed into little pieces as it flew away. Then an alarm went off. Rod, Serenity, Dorack, and Nal were looking out the window. “Dude, look!” Dorack said. Sodden ran over and saw the obelisks glowing brightly. Then they looked back and saw a ball on a table. “Overseer has been defeated! Ascension off the Ark in 120 seconds!” Then they ran to the ball. Sodden saw a small box just near and ran to it. He opened it and got a small orb. It glowed red inside, and was made from metal. But not any metal. Cera-metal, aka the metal they made implants from. Sodden ran to the large ball and touched it, as did everyone else. “All creatures will be teleported to tek cave entrancea! 101, 100, 99, 98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 91…” Then a large white dome began to appear around the group. The flashing was seen by everyone on the Ark. Red looked up from the tek cave. “81, 80, 79, 78, 77, 76, 75, 74, 73, 72, 71, 70, 69…” Terad saw it from his base and softlly nodded his head as he looked up. “You’d better do good. And keep that Rod under control. Who knows? Maybe some members of his tribe survived my purge.” Terad said.

“53, 52, 51, 50, 49, 48…” As the computerized voice counted down from the Overseer arena, the obeklisks glowed super brightly and started to pulse as they generated some energy. Then the energy started blasting from the obelisks and towards the Overseer arena. It was powering the transportation. The green obelisk did this first. The people at the blue obelisk had left the base to see the obelisk sending its energy. Cordor nodded as he saw it. He saluted as he said, “You’d better do good.” Then the red obelisk did the same thing with its energy. The energy beams were on the arena and powering the dome inside. “28, 27, 26, 25, 24, 23, 22…” The dome had almost encased the survivors, and the survivors began to feel some kind of energy inside of them. It was different from when they were at the obelisks for the other bosses. The energy filled their bodies. “Guys… it’s happening.” Sodden said. “Yes. The time has come.” Serenity said. Then their implants glowed bright red as some white energy wrapped around their bodies. “12… 11… 10…” “What will we do when we get there?” Dorack said. “I don’t know. We’ll just have to figure it out.” Sodden said. Then he walked to Serenity and held her hands. Then Dorack held Sodden’s hands, then Rod held Dorack’s. Then Nal held Dorack’s, and Serenity held Nal’s. They looked up, and yelled, “Let’s go, Journey Through All Creatures!!” “3… 2… 1…” Then suddenly, the beams were pulled in by the arena and a huge white light filled the room. The ceiling opened and the group was launched into the path towards Scorched Earth. They flew away from The Island quickly, and everyone at Nudon cheered in excitement. The sun began to set below the horizon, and the light started disappearing from the Island. Sodden’s implant was glowing red and he and his friends flew at an accelerating rate through the path that surrounded Earth. Then they came across a part that was flashing red. It was Scorched Earth. “Here we come!” Sodden yelled. Then they started getting pulled in. Rod looked at his implant and started a message. “Don’t worry, Rock Death Tribe. I’m coming.” Rod said. He stopped the recording, then sent the message. The group flew faster and faster until they flew through the last of the path and crashed through the dome of the Ark and into a unknown part of the Desert Ark.

Wow. Just… wow. You did it. You made it to the end of Section I of JTAC. This will be a very long story, and this section was absolutely crazy. I am glad to write this story and I love to write, so writing for myself and other people has been something I am happy to do. I’ll be away for a week working on other writing projects that I really like. But I am here to stay and will make this story for a long time. Journey Through All Creatures is such a good story and I like making it. I loved making Section I, and I thank you all for your support. So I hope you all enjoyed Section I a lot!

And I will see you all in Section II!!!

Bye-bye for now!

-RelatingHen8906

Chapter 34: Gatekeeper Cave

Note: Story starts in Achatina, The Island ABC order for Section I, Scorched Earth Exclusives and Aberration Exclusives for Section II and has a Prologue. Last chapter in Phoenix, next chapter in Thorny Dragon.

Cave Chapters Scorched Earth: Part 4/4: The Finale

Chapters to the end of Segment II: 3!!

ARKtic Memories: Part 8/12: Day 9

The sandstorm had long passed. The Yutyrannus, though, was not tamed up yet. Not even halfway. Serenity and Nal sat in their tent, watching the Yutyrannus, and looking around, waiting for Sodden and Dorack to arrive. As they sat and waited, Sodden and Dorack rode their Argy up north, towards the others, and while they did that, Dorack tapped Sodden’s shoulder.

“Hey… uh. So… you know who Tundra is?” Dorack asked. Sodden shook his head.

“No. He your wolf?” Sodden asked.

“It’s a she. And yeah, we tamed her during me and Nal’s time in Snowball. She was with us for 57 days… and I have no idea what happened after we left Snowball but I know we couldn’t get Tundra in a cryopod and back to The Island. So if Jerboa got it in a cryopod, why did he take it to the obelisk at The Island?” Dorack said. Sodden started nodding.

“Hmm. Okay, interesting. And you have no idea what happened right after you left Snowball?” Sodden asked. Dorack shook his head.

“Nope. Neither does Nal. The earliest good memory I have that occurred after we left that place was around 23 days after we left. Last thing I saw in Snowball was a Apex Direwolf, then something just knocked me out. Didn’t find Nal. Day 93 was probably the worst day of that entire adventure. Like… my brain kinda hurt after that day. I barely remember anything on Day 93.” Dorack said. “Wow. You got a concussion or something?” Sodden asked.

“A major one, yes. Slight brain damage, but it was permanent. Never goes away, it’s locked inside your essence, meaning it would have to leave for the damage to go away, and that pretty much means it’s there until I die for good.” Dorack said. Sodden nodded, then looked around. “You seriously remember nothing about that day? Where’s your “Jerboa” friend thing… how can they even use cryopods?” Sodden asked, confused.

“As far as me and Nal are concerned, we remember almost nothing about that day. And Jerboa is a human. I gave him that name because he has an implant attribute where he can detect weather events, like the creature. I did meet him around 4 weeks after we left Snowball, but Tundra was nowhere. Jerboa didn’t seem to remember what happened either. I… I don’t know. So much stuff that happened after Snowball is a blur. Sodden, you know what today is? Today is one full week from the 7-month anniversary of our escape from Snowball. Being trapped in such a cold, difficult, dangerous place for so long, with such extreme stakes… I… I can’t.” Dorack said. Tears began to roll down his cheeks as he sniffled.

“Dorack, you can tell me about it. Just get it out. I can help if you tell me what’s wrong.” Sodden said, looking back at Dorack. Dorack put his head down.

“I’m sorry, dude. I can’t. You don’t understand the trauma and grief that we, along with Nudon, faced during that 3-month period. Red, full name Codred, has never been so devastated since he lost Elaine permanently. This happened a while before you spawned in, Sodden. Around… what, 3 months or something?” Dorack said.

“I spawned in October 20, 2024. When did you leave Snowball?” Sodden asked.

“July 29, 2024. Arrived there April 27, 2024. That was one whole year since Elaine, Codred’s best friend, was killed permanently in an incident at the Strong cave. We were going to do a speech of honor by sending me and Nal to Scorched Earth using every piece of element and tributes we had, to carry the love of Nudon to the Arks, as he said. He liked the place and he wanted some supplies from there. Except… we never made it there. It took them 3 months to find out where we were! I refuse to talk about it. I will not… I will not talk about this. I’m… I’m parachuting the rest of the way.” Dorack exhaled in depression. He then took out a bag, bucked up the ropes on the base, leaped off the Argy, then deployed the parachute. He floated north. Sodden only stared, speechless. He put his head down and sighed. Then he got a notification. Dorack sent him a message.

“Just leave me alone, okay? I do not want to talk about ARKtic anymore.” Sodden then sighed and the Argy kept flying forward, its wings flapping hard.

~~~~

Day 9 of ARKtic

84 days before Nal and Dorack’s escape

“A Tough Storm”

It was quiet. Too quiet. That day in Snowball, the wind was soft, the temperature was at -4 degrees, and the creatures were scarce. Under normal circumstances, Nal and Dorack would be doing great at this point. But the XP gain inside Snowball is 5%, so leveling was a real grind. The lack of explorer notes made it way harder. Nal and Dorack stuck to killing deer, penguins, and fish. They could kill sabers with a bola and bow. But even though they could kill stuff, the cold made it almost impossible. They had to grind wood, flint, stones, and thatch for loads of torches and campfires, they had to stay in their base, near the gray obelisk, so they didn’t have much time to kill things. They only managed to get to Level 13. They did not have hide armor, they only had cloth. They held a torch all the time. Their thatch hut near the obelisk was only 2 by 3, and had 8 standing torches in it, along with 6 campfires. They had over 7 stacks of wood inside of a storage box next to the door. Nal sat near the door and storage box, looking around frantically. Dorack then ran through the door, bursting it open and making a crash sound. Dorack then turned and shut the door again. He was shaking, his arms crossed and his hands on his shoulders. “It is stupidly cold out there. If something doesn’t change soon, we will die.” Dorack said. Nal nodded in agreement.

“At least nothing wants to eat us today.” Nal said. Dorack sighed and shook his head.

“There are still creatures out there, and going too far from the base means death. And the problem is, there’s almost no trees close by. The jungle over a 30 minute walk from here is the closest we have now. Even if we got there, we would have to face the immense amount of creatures there. Wolves, purlovia, alpha creatures, Rexes, Yutys, and if we’re not careful… we could get frostbite again.” Dorack said. Nal sighed and turned her head to the closed door. “What are we going to do about this?” Nal asked.

“I don’t know. But… we need to find a way.” Dorack said. Nal nodded.

“The 90-minute limit outside is barely working anymore. We’re running low on stuff. That wood we have is our last supply. We still need levels for hide armor and we need more fortitude in our stats.” Nal said. Dorack nodded. The two then walked to the standing torches, which sat on the right corner of the hut, next to the campfires on the left corner. “Okay. Let’s heal up, then we’ll find some creatures to kill.” Dorack said. Nal nodded. They both took out 50 pieces of wood, then put 10 in each standing torch, and took out a fint and a stone. They scraped them together above the wood, until some sparks flew from the rocks and onto the wood, igniting them and creating a fire. They did this for the other 3 torches, They then put their supplies back in their bags. The fires crackled as they lit up the dark room, and gave warmth to the two survivors. “That feels good.” Dorack said. Nal nodded. They stood close to the fires, then sat down beneath them. Nal and Dorack looked at each other. “Just think. If we went into that ascension path an hour earlier that day, we wouldn’t have been launched here.” Dorack said. Nal sighed.

“Don’t blame yourself. We did not see it coming. We should’ve been more careful.” Nal responded.

“True. We’re going to survive this, though, right?” Dorack asked. Nal nodded.

“We’re going to do our best to survive until the day we can go home.” Nal said, smiling. Dorack smiled too, then they fist bumped each other.

~~~~

Around 15 minutes later, Sodden and Dorack, one on the Argy and the other on a parachute, were approaching the mountains. They found the area where Serenity had set up camp, along with Nal. Closer to the peak of the mountain, was a flat area with a bunch of rocks and some catcuses. In the center of the area was a tent, and just to the left of the tent, a few meters from it, was a trap. A 2 by 2 stone floor wth doorways 2 walls tall, surrounding the platform. A unconscious Yutyrannus sat inside of the trap, its breaths slow and quiet, its mouth quietly crunched down on some prime meat inside of its inventory. Sodden approached the tent, then when he landed his Argy, he got off of it, took a cryopod from his bag, and put the Argy inside. He then walked to the tent, along with Dorack, and Serenity and Nal heard footsteps outside the flaps, then stood up and walked out of the tent to see Sodden and Dorack standing before them. “I saw the message you sent to Sodden. Sodden, something wrong?” Nal asked to Sodden.

“No, not really. I was hoping Dorack would open up about this ARKtic thing.” Sodden said. Nal sighed.

“There’s a reason why we don’t talk about it. That whole thing changed me and Dorack forever in ways you wouldn’t understand. Sure, you’ve been here on the cusp of 4 months, but you haven’t been trapped away from friends for 3 months, in a dangerous place, or any of that stuff.” Nal said.

“Yeah, but the thing is, this mission as a whole… that’s just a lot worse. Because it’s not creatures we have to face.” Sodden said. Serenity walked closer to him then turned to Nal.

“I agree. Terad has some people spread across different Arks. There could be people here and we wouldn’t know. Getting caught by Terad is not an option. I have seen his power, what he can do. He has this mad idea… something with the Assassin Heart. I don’t know what it is, but it may have something to do with why we went to Aberration in the first place. Getting there will help us find answers. Let’s not worry about ARKtic right now, okay? Let’s worry about what we need to do.” Serenity said. Then before anyone could say anything else, they heard crunching and turned around. They saw the Yuty eat another piece of meat from its inventory, its head slightly lifted, then after it stopped eating its head went back down. “Okay, so should we just go to the Crag cave?” Dorack asked.

“Hold on. We still haven’t done something.” Sodden said. He then turned to Serenity.

“So… we saw a wolf in the cave we just went to. It was not normal. It had these weird ice powers, and it was a unclaimed Level 710. Her name’s Tundra. She was Dorack and Nal’s wolf from when they were in Snowballl. We were wondering how the wolf got here, and I wanted to ask if you or Terad found a cryopod in a obelisk while you and your tribe were here?” Sodden asked.

“Hmm. I think I might know of something. Terad once went to the green obelisk to look at the tributes for traveling to Aberration without ascension, because, you need specific supplies to do that and we had an explorer at the time, and he found a cryopod inside of it. I think he said it was useless so he flew to the only cave with wolves on this map, aka the Crag cave which you guys went to, and he threw it hard and far into the cave. He then just left. Never saw the cryopod again after that. I don’t know how it got into that obelisk if Tundra was in Snowball Earth.” Serenity said. Sodden gasped.

“That says it all. Tundra is back. She’s just right there, in that cave. But how did she get here in the first place? Like, who put it in an obelisk?” Dorack pondered. Nal shrugged.

“Maybe Jerboa did it. I don’t remember him doing it, though. But why would he do it?” Nal said. “We could use an obelisk to communicate this with Red to find out.” Sodden suggested. Nal nodded, and so did Dorack.

“That could work. Why don’t we get to the Gatekeeper cave and close out the caves? You and Serenity can stay here and monitor the Yuty.” Dorack said, facing Nal. Nal and Sodden nodded. “It’s diagonal on the other side of the map. It’ll take at least 2 hours to get there with our Argy. The Yuty will definitely be tamed long before we return. So I’m thinking that Serenity and Nal will finish the Yuty tame, then go back to base where we can start working on our Rex army. Hey, maybe we can go for some Wyverns now.” Sodden said.

“That’s a good idea. We can use the moth to get to the World Scar. We’re next to it, but I want to get back to base and get prepared.” Nal said. Dorack chuckled and turned to the path down to the base of the mountain. Sodden turned to Dorack then took a cryopod from his bag. He threw it at the ground, and an Argy came out. Sodden and Dorack hopped onto it. “Introduce me to Tundra when you get back, okay?” Serenity asked. Sodden turned around and nodded. “Introduce me to the Yuty when we get back, okay?” Sodden asked. Serenity nodded. Sodden looked forward and the Argy roared as it lifted its talons off the ground and started flapping its wings. It roared as it flew forward, flying southeast at a slow rate. It would take a while to get to the cave, but all this grinding would be worth it at the end.

~~~~

The jungles of Snowball are cold, snowy, and deadly. Filled of Direwolves, purlovias, Yutyrannuses, Carnos, and more. There are so many direwolves, Alpha Direwolves spawn often. These aren’t the alphas you’d think are from the Primal Chaos mod. They’re stronger, around 2 times stronger than these, as strong as Alpha Carnos, have a gnash ability, and are way faster. Nal and Dorack were standing at the edge of the jungle, almost half an hour from their base. Their feet were shaking, their bodies were shaking, they swung their hatchets against trees to collect wood and thatch for the base. They had to replenish supplies as soon as they could. Nal and Dorack could barely hit the trees; their hands were shaking and their breaths were cold. Their feet began to sink in the snow, their cloth armor beginning to wear down. Nal slowly walked to Dorack. Dorack stopped cutting down one of the trees and turned around. “So… how much… we have…” Dorack shivered. Nal sighed heavily. “Around 2 stacks for me. How much do you have?” Nal said coldly.

“Over a stack. Let’s just get out of here.” Dorack said. Nal nodded, they began to walk the other direction, towards the gray obelisk. They walked slowly, holding each other and shivering. Their left hands had a torch in it, but it did almost nothing. Snowball’s temperature was extreme, making it almost impossible to survive in this Ark. A survivor with zero fortitude, no armor, and no levels can only survive 3 hours in such weather. The worse the cold and condition, the less that timeframe is. They gasped heavily as they trudged through the snow slowly and carefully. Their footfalls crunched down the snow, they could see their cold breaths. After a few minutes, they began to walk faster. They walked at a fast pace, then as they held hands, they began to jog across the snow. The wind was soft, so they wouldn’t have to worry about frostbite. But when they looked up, they realized they would have to worry about something worse. Much, much worse.

“Oh, my sweet Jasper berries.” Dorack gasped, horrified at what he and Nal saw. Nal’s jaw dropped, and she had a terrified look on her face. They had seen a bundle of large dark clouds on the horizon, and the dark clouds rumbled quietly, flashing white occasionally.

“Oh, no. No… no! We’re not ready for that yet!” Nal screamed. “We just need to get back to base fast.” Dorack said, determined. He gripped Nal’s hand tighter and lifted his heavy legs to run faster. Their footsteps grew louder as they used their remaining energy to dash all the way back to base.

A snowstorm was coming. Two Level 13 survivors would have to take extreme measures to survive such thing. It could exert over -30 degrees of cold, and down to -50 degrees on a cold night. In other words, a snowstorm was the biggest challenge any survivor in Snowball could face.

~~~~

Two hours in the hot sun had made the two survivors sweaty. Their palms were sweating badly, but the desert cloth was keeping them from getting hot stroke. But even then, they were still hit. Sodden was quietly panting, and so was Dorack. He took a water jar from his bag and opened the lid, then drank down some water. He drank for 9 seconds, then put the lid back on the jar and put the jar back in his bag. Dorack had hydrated a few minutes earlier. The survivors looked down and saw their Argy soaring across the dunes of Scorched Earth, approaching what seemed to be a ruined building, with trees lined up on the front. This was the Artifact of the Gatekeeper cave. The Old Tunnels. (Author’s note: I am aware I switched the Destroyer and Gatekeeper caves. Please just go with it.) Sodden and Dorack descended towards the ground on their Argentavis, then approached the building entrance, where there was a large opening in the floor, and a ramp that went down into a cave. Sodden and Dorack hopped off their Argy, then Sodden took a cryopod from his bag and put the Argy inside of it. Then after Sodden put the cryopod back in his bag, the two survivors walked to the cave entrance, then Dorack took a cryopod from his bag, threw it at the ground, and an Alpha Raptor came out. Then Sodden and Dorack hopped on it, and began walking down to the cave. Sodden then opened his mouth to say something. “Dorack, have you thought of a name for the raptor yet?” Sodden asked. Dorack turned around.

“Not really. I might think of one soon, though. We know it’s a female. It’s a cool color, white on the head and back, red on the belly and legs. Its feathers are green, too. I don’t have much on my mind about what this guy’s name is. Anyway, let’s continue on.” Dorack said. He whistled and pointed forward, and the raptor roared and ran. It ran around the bend just at the entrance, and saw a bunch of spiders, a few bats, and some weird shaped rocks at the narrower tunnel. “Okay, let’s do this.” Dorack said. He whistled attack and the raptor roared as the crowd of spiders crawled to the raptor. The raptor lunged at the two spiders in front of the group and raised its claws, then when it hit the ground its paws hit the spiders heads, scratching their heads, then the raptor screeched and swung its claws downward, cracking open the abdomen of the spiders. Then Sodden reached into his bag and took out a shotgun. He aimed it at the spiders, and while the raptor jumped at spiders, eating their heads off, Sodden gripped on the saddle with his right hand and shooting down the bats and spiders with his left hand. Dorack held the Raptor’s tail tightly and sat up too. The raptor was crunching down spiders with its mouth and clawing others. Then they heard a loud screech and Sodden saw some rocks flying at the raptor. The raptor saw this, but the two rocks hit it in the head, causing the raptor to get launched backwards and the two survivors to fall off. The alpha raptor fell over, its head damaged badly. “It took a lot of damage. Should we keep fighting?” Sodden said as he got up and brushed sand off his desert cloth pants. Dorack got up too.

“I don’t know, but let’s decide fast!” Dorack yelled. He ran down the path, then Sodden reached into his bag quickly and yanked a cryopod out. He then threw it at the ground. Reaper came out. Sodden and Dorack got on and Reaper began to run down the path. The alpha raptor got up, dizzy and hurt, then screeched quietly as it followed Reaper down the cave. As it did this, a sabertooth on the wall leaped down to the ground, and the two rubble golems roared as they began running. The golems would definitely be what ended Reaper and the Alpha Raptor if Sodden and Dorack weren’t careful.

~~~~

5:30 PM

15 minutes before Snowstorm arrived

Nal and Dorack had just burst the door open on their base. They lunged forward, and hit the thatch floor, gasping in exhaustion. Dorack then leaped up and slammed the door.

“This thatch hut will not hold up against that snowstorm. Okay… we have a lot of thatch, wood, and quite a good amount of fiber. But the problem is, the wind can break the thatch, and also put out our fires. Wood will work well too, but our wood supplies are not good enough for both a wooden hut and fuel for hours. We have 10 and a half stacks of wood. 1,053 wood, to be exact. We need a good ceiling and good walls to keep ourselves warm during the storm. Okay… so… because sunset is soon, we can expect an average of -38 degrees. That combined with the wind… it can get to around -60 if the wind is bad enough. That means windows breaking can mean almost certain death. We need to just have no windows and doors. So… let’s get started.” Dorack said. Nal nodded. Dorack took 5 stacks of wood, a few stacks of thatch and 2 stacks of fiber from his storage box and walked to the door. He then took out his hatchet and swung it downwards with brute force, cracking the door hard. Dorack then kicked it hard and the door flew backwards, shattering. Dorack then demolished the doorway the same way and put up a wooden wall, with wood, fiber holding the logs together, and thatch to keep it stable. It helped against the door. There was one closed window on the left side of the house, and Dorack threw the wood towards the window, then walked to the window and picked up all the wood. He bashed down the wall and window, then put up a new wooden wall there. “Okay, so a stack of wood will last us through the night. But shelter is the real problem. The wind out there can get bad. Our thatch will collapse. We need a wooden box inside of this place. And fast. We also need at least 8 standing torches to last us, so let’s hope we don’t have to use too many supplies to make the shelter.” Dorack said. Nal nodded. They walked to the standing torches at the wall, moved three of them closer to another two, then moved one in the right corner towards the center, then Dorack took out a log, used fiber and thatch to create a small bowl inside of that log, then put some wood in it, using the fiber to protect the wood from the fire. He did this with another log, then put up the two standing torches he just made. “Okay, now we just need to box ourselves in.” Dorack said. “Are we going to have enough food or water to last?” Nal asked. Dorack sighed.

“I don’t know. Let’s just hope we do.” Dorack said. He then took out the wood, thatch, and fiber, put some walls up with the supplies, then sat down on the foundation the torches were on and put some wood and fiber tied together on it, cruushing the thatch below. It would reinforce the foundation, and they hoped it would be enough. They then put up a wooden ceiling using the wood, tying the logs to the top of the ceiling. The ceiling was two walls high, sitting above the torches and there was a second layer of 4 walls above the foundation. Dorack still had 6 stacks of wood. Splitting all 600 wood across the torches, they could put 75 wood in each torch, meaning the fuel would last them 8 hours. They also had torches if they needed them. Dorack put the pile of 75 wood in each standing torch, took out a flint and a stone, then bashed them together and scraped the flint along the surface of the stone. Holding it over the first torch, he keppt doing this until it caused sparks to fly onto the wood, igniting it. Dorack did this with the other torches, then they heard rumbling as Dorack was igniting the last torch. “It’s here.” Nal said nervously. “Let’s hope this is enough.” Dorack said. He finished igniting the last standing torch then walked to Nal, who stood against the wall. The snowstorm had arrived.

See the struggle at the end of the chapter! (We got a cave to finish.)

~~~~

Sodden and Dorack ran on their raptors towards the artifact chamber. They ran hard, but spiders would not stop launching webs at them. The spiders continued to web them as they ran, and the raptors tried their best to ignore them. There was also some wolves and a mantis coming. Sodden and Dorack knew they could not risk anything. There was a ton of creatures going for them, along with the two rubble golems. The spiders crawled along the tunnels, following the raptors. A mantis sat behind the crowd of spiders. The alpha raptor was injured and dizzy. The raptor was running slowly, growling weakly and whimpering. “The alpha raptor is badly hurt.” Dorack said.

“That’s not good. We’re going to have to continue on Reaper.” Sodden said. The two survivors found a rock, got off their alpha raptor, then Dorack took a cryopod from his bag and put the alpha raptor in it. Then the two survivors got on Reaper and they dashed further into the cave until they found the room. Some deep cliffs. Spikes on the bottom of the cliffs. The podium over the small but deadly dropoff held the artifact container, and Reaper walked up the path leading to it. Sodden approached it, then got off Reaper and ran to the container. Sodden then pushed the lid off, groaning as he went, until the lid fell off and made a crash as it hit the ground. Sodden then lifted the Artifact of the Gatekeeper out of the container. He put it in his bag. Sodden walked to the raptor, panting, then got on. “Okay, all artifacts secured. All that’s left is preparation.” Sodden said. “Now we just gotta get out of here.” Dorack said. “How will we do that?” Sodden asked. The raptor began running down the path and towards the tunnels that led to the cave entrance. The spiders were coming, so the raptor jumped over the spiders as webs began soaring through the air, some hitting the raptor. The mantis then lunged at the raptor, then Sodden shot it down with his shotgun. Reaper continued to run, but the spiders were coming, and one had its mouth open, about to bite the tail, then Sodden turned around and shot down the creatures coming for him. They were clearing out creatures easily, then as they began to approach the cave entrance, something flew at the raptor. Reaper screeched and tried to jump out of the way, but the rock missed his tail and hit Sodden’s leg hard, causing him to shout in pain and drop the shotgun, then fall off the raptor. A rubble golem sat at the entrance. Sodden could not get up, and the spiders were coming. Reaper roared and ran at Sodden. Reaper looked at the spiders deeply, growled loudly, and leaped at one, sinking its teeth into its head, and ripping up its body. There were 6 spiders, though, and the others were surrounding them. Dorack got off of Reaper and walked to Sodden, who was on the ground, groaning. “Oh, my god. This is bad. Okay…” Dorack said, then the rubble golem roared, yanked a rock out of the ground, and launched it at Dorack. Dorack picked up Sodden with his hands and walked to the other side, dodging the rock. Reaper then ran for Dorack, causing the rock to hit three of the spiders and smushing them almost instantly. “We just have to get back to the base as fast as we can!” Dorack said. He ran to the opening just ahead, barely outrunning the rubble golem coming. Reaper screeched and ran at the golem, then tried to bite its back, but it pulled its teeth away and screeched in pain. “Just go!” Dorack yelled. Reaper growled as she ran towards Dorack, dodging another rock. As they rose from the church, Dorack immediately put Sodden on the hard concrete floor then took a cryopod out. He threw it at the ground, releasing the Argy, then Dorack took out a brace, along with some bandages, and put the gauze on Sodden’s wound, which was on his left leg, then put the brace on the bandages, holding them on. “You good?” Dorack asked. Sodden was panting in exhaustion, wincing in pain. Dorack sighed and stripped the brace onto Sodden’s leg to tighten it and stabilize the wound. “Okay, how can we get back in this condition?” Dorack asked. Then they heard growling. Dorack took out another cryopod, put Reaper in it, then picked Sodden up again and sat him up on the front of the Argy, holding his back. Sodden was conscious, though, and he held the saddle with both hands, His leg, though, would be unbalancing the Argy, so Dorack dropped some stone, then the Argy took off from the ground and roared as it began flying back north. It would only take over an hour to get back to the base. Nal and Serenity had tamed up the Yutyrannus and brought it back to the base, and Rod had carried some metal back to the base too.

After around an hour, Sodden and Dorack approached their base on the Argy, and Nal stood on the front porch. “You’re back. We started breeding our Rexes and we also got a saddle for the Yuty thanks to the metal Rod collected.” Nal called out. Dorack heard this and when the Argy landed, he and Sodden hopped off. Sodden limped over to the door. Nal gasped as she eeyed Sodden’s injured leg. “What happened in that cave?” Nal said in shock.

“Got hit by a rubble golem on the way out. We’re still alive, though, and that’s all that matters.” Dorack said. Nal sighed.

“You said you got some metal?” Sodden asked. Nal nodded.

“Rod went out to get some. I don’t think he went anywhere else, though. His metal pick was way more damaged than it was at noon, so he definitely was collecting metal. Yeah, it’d be faster to get an Anky.” Nal said. “Right, but we don’t exactly need that much stuff, do we? We just need good weapons, which we can get from desert drops. Why don’t we go out and farm some later?” Sodden asked. Nal nodded, then they heard the door creak open, and Serenity walked out of it. “Okay, guys. If we’re settled down, then why don’t we go inside? We can plan out what to do for the remainder of Scorched Earth.” Serenity said. She then saw Sodden holding the railings on the stairs. “Dude, what happened in that cave?” Serenity said.

“We got attacked, that’s what happened.” Sodden said. Dorack then walked up to him. “Hey, by the way, sorry for being kinda rude to you earlier. I just have a hard time ignoring Arctic. This… this adventure is bringing it all back. I don’t like that and I don’t want to think about that. Everything we were through there…” Dorack said, then Sodden cut in. He put his hand on Dorack’s shoulder. “It’s okay. If you don’t want to talk about it, that’s fine. I won’t pressure you anymore. Come on. Let’s get out of this heat.” Sodden said. Dorack chuckled, then everyone walked to the door. They went into the base, and Serenity closed the door after she walked in.

~~~~

Day 10 of ARKtic

83 days before Nal and Dorack’s escape.

1:15 AM

The snowstorm had been raging on for hours now. Very, very early on the morning of Day 10, the snowstorm was still roaring. The wind was hard, the snow pushed hard. The thatch walls and some of the foundations were broken, some destroyed. The ceiling had collapsed. Inside of the box, Nal and Dorack had ran out of wood. They held each other tightly, inside of a sleeping bag. The dying torchlight of the 8 standing torches only had a few pieces of wood left. They used the supplies from the other campfires and their box just to fuel it for a few more hours. But it was not enough. There was snow piled up across the broken hut, and piles of snow scattered across the land. The wind was raging hard. Nal and Dorack shivered as the torchlight grew dimmer. Nal looked down onto Dorack’s lap. “Please… please, let this end.” Nal said. The wooden box had begun to wear out at this point. Taking severe damage from the wind, the wood was losing stability. Dorack shivered and gasped as he let out multiple cold breaths. The snowstorm wind was hard. But soon, it would be over. Dorack saw the torchlight almost fade away. 4 standing torches had 20 thatch in them, and another 4 had 10. This was only enough for around 30 more minutes. Then they heard cracking. Dorack gasped. The ceiling was heavy. There was a ton of snow in it, and it was giving out! “Oh, no.” Dorack said.

“What?” Nal said, terrified.

“There is a ton of snow on the ceiling. We need to get it off.” Dorack said.

“But how!?” Nal yelled. Dorack sighed.

“There is only one way. I made a hatch on that ceiling. It’s sealed, and it’s for emergencies. Stay here.” Dorack said. He crawled out of the bag, and Nal gasped. Dorack began to climb the walls to the hatch. He took out a spear and pointed it at the seal. “Brace for impact. We may take some damage!” Dorack yelled. He stabbed the seal hard, bursting the hatch open and launching snow into the box. Dorack yelled in pain as he climbed out of the box, holding the ceiling tightly. He then took out a shovel and began to scrape snow off of the ceiling. He put all his strength, groaning as he strained, pushing against 30 MPH wind and withstanding 40 degrees below zero. Nal sat against the wall, gasping as the snow began to surround her. She hid in the sleeping bag as Dorack pushed the last of the snow away. Dorack then put the last of his fiber and thatch on the ceiling, repairing the cracks that was done. He then got shoved into the hatch, then climbed to the hatch opening, closed the hatch, and took the seal from the right side and clipped it to the ceiling, and used fiber to seal it off completely. Dorack was gasping in exhaustion as he fell to the ground. Nal peeked out of the sleeping bag. There was a pile of snow inside of the box, and the torches were out. “Well… that was risky. But it was worth it.” Dorack gasped as he shivered hard and let out cold breaths. Nal sighed and crawled to Dorack. “You did good. We both would’ve died if you didn’t fix that ceiling.” Nal said. Dorack nodded, then sat up. He walked to the sleeping bag, then he collapsed onto it. He crawled into it, and so did Nal. “You got any fuel left?” Dorack asked. Nal nodded.

“Some, yeah.” Nal said. She got out of the bag and walked to the standing torches.. She only had 50 wood, and she put 10 in each, to ignite 5 of them. After Nal ignited the torches, she went back into the sleeping bag, and they began to close their eyes as they held hands.

6 hours later.

The walls were broken now. The sunlight flowed through the room, snow on the floor, and covering most of the box. But the sun had come up. Nal and Dorack began to open their eyes, staring at each other. “Let’s get up now, okay?” Dorack said. He rubbed his eyes, then he crawled out of the bag and stood up. Nal got up too and let out an exhale. “Well, we survived that.” Dorack said. Nal nodded. The two then walked to the front wall, and Dorack took out his hatchet and bashed it against the wall, shattering half of it. Almost their entire hut was badly damaged, most of it destroyed. The mortar and pestle on the storage box was broken, and some sparkpowder lay on the snow, next to two flare guns. The foundations were badly damaged too. Snow everywhere. Nal and Dorack walked to the sparkpowder. “Well, time to rebuild, I guess.” Dorack said. Nal nodded. They picked up the two flare guns, took whatever sparkpowder was left. Then put the gunpowder that it had produced with the charcoal inside of the flare guns. Then Nal and Dorack pointed the guns at the sky. “So begins…” Dorack said.

“Day 10 on Snowball Earth.” Nal said. They then pulled the triggers, launching the fire balls off onto the sky, warming up the place. The fire balls split and exploded. Nal and Dorack sighed deeply. They then walked towards the gray obelisk to find resources.

—-

…you’ve made it so far…

…next time…

…you will see Day 1 of ARKtic…

…how they got to Snowball, why it happened, and how their first day went…

…you only grow closer to the Segment II Finale…

…In its place is the tribute farming, involving lots of wyverns, the Manticore showdown, and Day 93 of ARKtic…

…Prepare for the end of Segment II, in Chapter 37…

—-

Hope y’all enjoyed this extremely long chapter! Honestly, making this 6.5K words was unexpected, but here we are! This is by far the longest standalone chapter in this story! Anyway, we’re getting close to the end of another long segment and also the halfway point of JTAC. Crazy to think we’re close to the end of the first half of this story. Yet we’ve got so, so much more to go.

Anyway, see ya in the next one!

-RelatingHen8906

Chapter 50: The Xenomorph Showdown

Part 5/5: The Great Escape

Extra note: There will now be only five parts. Parts 5 and 6 were originally pretty short, so I’m going to combine both parts for this one. Enjoy the grand finale of Section II!!

10:51 PM

Above Dread’s base…

Aberration was in a massive transition phase. The sunset on Aberration showing the final sunset for Dread and his tribe. This would hopefully be the end of Dread’s regin over Aberration. Sodden and the others were on their Rock Drakes, right above the front walls to Dread’s base.

“Well… what now?” Dorack asked. Sodden sighed.

“We go. Now.” Sodden said. Then just as Syl was about to launch herself, a Rock Drake suddenly launched forwards from behind and right at Sylveevee’s butt,, causing her to screech and lose her grip on the ceiling. Sodden and Dorack shouted as they gripped tightly on the Roock Drake. Drake roared and glided down too Syl, then another Rock Drake shot forwards at Drake and rammed into him, and he began to fall towards the base. Syl yelled as Sodden and Dorack gripped tightly on the drake. They were doing it easily. Nal, however, struggled to keep a grip. She screamed as she got thrown around, barely holding onto the tail. Dorack gasped as he saw Nal beginning to slip. Dorack shouted and tried to climb down the back of the Rock Drake, but he accidentally misssed a step and he almost fell off. He shouted and gripped tightly on the fur. Nal yelled as she slipped from the tail and fell straight downwards to the base.

“NOOOOO!!!” Dorack yelled. He then leaped off the Rock Drake, and Sodden gasped in shock.

“Dorack!!” Sodden yelled.

“Sodden! Just go and kill him! I’ll handle Nal.” Dorack yelled as he continued to freefall to the ground. He glided downwards to Nal, then grabbed her back, then before they could pull a parachute, they slammed right down into a bush near the base’s front door. Some blood was oozing out of the bush, parts of it pristine and gray-colored. Syl managed to regain her traction and glided down to the ground and slammed onto the path to the base. Sodden leaped off and ran to the bush, then rustled through it to find Dorack holding Nal in his hands. Nal was badly bruised, with her lower leg dislocated. She was unconscious from the injuries. Sodden gasped. Drake then came down too, managing to regain his traction, and Skyocean and Cooper leaped off. They ran towards Nal. They then helped Dorack out of the bush. He limped as he groaned, trying to get out of the sticks and leaves. He got out, then Cooper picked up Nal and carried her towards Drake. Nal was laid down on the wings of Drake.

“I’ll help her. You two get in there. Skyocean will help. Syl, morph back into a human and help me out!” Cooper yelled. Everyone nodded. Syl then glowed brbight magenta and shrunk down to a human, then she ran to Cooper, and crouched down near Nal, and put down a bag.. She took out some bandages while CCooper tried to keep her leg stable. They had to make sure she did not die. Stable respawning is possible for essence over 85 percent stability. Nal only had 45 percent. Dorack sniffled softly, and Sodden grabbed his arm.

“Come on! We need to go! They won’t be fine if we stay out here.” Sodden said. Dorack nodded and turned to him, then they and Skyocean ran to the door. Skyocean took a metal shield out of his bag and ran as fast as he could to the door, shattering it and causing him to be launched forwards. He managed to pick up his feet again. He turned to Sodden and Dorack, who walked into the base with them. The base’s interior was quiet. No one seemed to be around, not even on the stairs. Sodden didn’t know if Dread had actually left. Dorack and Sodden pulled out their shotguns, and Skyocean walked forwards, then towards a metal door on the opposite side of the room. The door had an alarm right above it. Access to tribe members only. As soon as they entered the room, there would be no turning back. Skyocean breathed deeply then began glowing bright blue. He morphed into Dread again. He then used his arm to unlock the door, and open it, and as soon as it creaked open, the alarm went off. Flashing red and white, it made a loud blaring noise. Sodden and Dorack immediately ran through the doorway, and the three walked down the hall, which was flashing red from the alarms. Then they heard deep growling, and Sodden gasped. They stopped moving, then looked around the area, their shotguns out and aiming at whatever came for them. Skyocean morophed back into a human because he had to stay with the others for as long as he could. Then 5 Megalosauruses ran from the lower hall and lunged right at Sodden. He and Dorack then shot two of them in the head and leaped away, dodging the creatures. The other three growled and ran at Dorack, opening its mouth to pick him up. Dorack shot him down too, then another one lunged at his back, and knocked him down to the ground, He opened his mouth to clamp down on his neck, then Sodden struck the Megalosaur’s head hard, and it fell over, and Sodden immediately swung it back around to shoot the creature in the head. Dorack gasped as he gripped his back, and stood up.

“You good?” Sodden asked. Dorack nodded as he turned to his right.

“Yeah.” Dorack said. Then they continued to walk, then they heard a deep, booming voice.

“Don’t go any further.” The voice growled. Sodden and Dorack gasped.

“I knew it.” Sodden whispered softly.

“I’ve been waiting here. I knew you’d come back. Why can’t you just give up? It’s over for you guys. Don’t you see? All I need to do is send you guys back when Serenity dies in two hours. Oh, wait. It should be one… nevermind. It doesn’t matter. You’ll be dead long before then.” Dread sneered as he stormed to Sodden. Sodden then took a cryopod out of his bag and dropped it on the ground. Reaper came out of it. She looked around, then noticed Dread slowly walking towards Sodden.. Reaper growled deeply and lowered her body, ready to pounce. Dread stopped moving and chuckled.

“Go ahead. Send her at me. I’ll just defeat her again. There’s nothing you can do. Okay… any last words?” Dread sneered. Sodden scoffed and walked ahead of Dorack, towards Dread at a slow pace.

“I’m the one who should be asking that question. Though I think you’d just go on and on about that crap with the… “cycle” that you describe.” Sodden shouted. He then whistled loudly, and Reaper screeched loudly and leaped over Sodden, right at Dread, then Dread got knocked down, and Reaper tried to hold him down, but Dread was holding her neck and legs and tried to throw her off. Skyocean scoffed and morphed into Dread again to hold him down. Skyocean ran at Dread and lunged at his arms, trying to hold down his left arm. Dread gasped and kicked Reaper backwards, and she rammed into the wall, and got up, groaning softly. Dread then took out a sword from his bag and struck Skyocean in the shoulder with it. He yelled in pain as he released his grip on Dread, and he morphed back intoo his human form as he was too injured to shapeshift. Dread growled and stood up. Skyocean groaned softly as he tried to get up. His shoulder had a crack in it, and it was bleeding out. He fell down to the ground again, and he was lying on his hips, and he clutched his shoulder. Dread then yanked the sword out of his shoulder violently, causing Skyocean to shout in pain as his shoulder became even more fragmented. Reaper then lunged at Dread’s head, pinned him down again, and Dread roared as he tried to shove her off. Dread grabbed Reaper’s neck with both hands, then Dorack ran at Dread and swung his shotgun down to his left shoulder. He slammed down onto it, and Dread yelled in iain, then he kicked Dorack hard, then threw Reaper off and stood up. Reaper hit the wall again, and got back up, slightly disoriented. Reaper growled and ran at Dread again. Skyocean scoffed and took a medical brew out of his bag. It was the last one he had. He quickly drank it down, and his wound began to shrink. The blood stopped pouring out. Then as he finished drinking it, his wound was gone and he no longer hurt. Skyocean growled and stood up. Sodden was sitting besides a doorway, gripping the device in his hands. He was waiting for the right time to strike. Dorack leaped at Dread, then punched him in the face and grabbed his left arm, and Dread then grabbed his legs with his right hand and swung him upwards, and slammed him into the ground. Dorack shouted in pain as he hit the floor, and he tried to get up, then Skyocean and Reaper ran at Dread, striking his back at the same time. He shouted in pain as he got launched forwards, hitting the wall hard. Dread growled softly and groaned as he got up. He scoffed and turned around to Skyocean. He took a sword out of his bag, then ran at Reaper, and swung the sword right at her neck. Reaper leaped out of the way, dodged it, then Skyocean leaped at his shoulders and grabbed his neck, pulling him down to the ground. Dread slammed into the ground again, shouting in pain. Skyocean growled as he took a sword out and stabbed his left shoulder with it. Dread growled as he lifted his feet, trying to crush Skyocean’s legs. He repeatedly struck them, and Skyocean groaned as he tried to break apart his shoulder, but he groaned in exhaustion and dropped the sword right on his back, then fell over. Reaper lunged at his neck and grabbed it, then lifted it up and slammed it down into the ground again. Dread then flipped over and grabbed Reaper’s legs, then stood up and threw her across the hall. She slammed into the ground again, and she was becoming more bruised, and blood started coming out of her legs. Dread then turned to Dorack and grabbed his neck, then pinned him down to the ground. Dorack gasped, trying to hit Dread’s hands away, but he wouldn’t budge. Reaper could barely stand. Skyocean couldn’t even stand at all. Dread groaned as he pinned down Dorack’s legs with his legs.

“This ends now!” Dread yelled as he took a sword out of his bag, then took his left arm and pinned down Dorack’s left wrist with it. He lifted the sword high in the air.

“Any last words, idiot?” Dread sneered. Dorack scoffed.

“No one… messes with my friends… and gets away with it!!” Dorack screamed. Dread growled and was about to bring the sword down, when Sodden ran right behind him, and swung the device right into Dread’s left wrist. Sodden barely missed Dorack. The impact was directly into his singularity, immediately causing Dread to shout in pain, and he dropped the sword on the ground and released his grip on Dorack. Dorack gasped and stood up, thenn Sodden knocked Dread down to the ground. Dread’s implant was crackling, glowing orange-red. Tons of purple-blue ooze poured out of it. The singularity inside was pulsating red. It was critically damaged. It was a direct hit. The biotoxin began flowing through his essence, causing his essence stability to drop rapidly. Dread groaned as he was pushed down on his belly, trying to move his legs. He could barely move them. Sodden then picked up Dread’s sword and lodged it into Dread’s implant, further damaging its essence. Dread shouted in pain as he began to feel queasy, and he coughed some blood. He could barely breathe. Sodden growled and crouched down near his head.

“Where’s Serenity?” Sodden asked. Dread scoffed.

“As if… as if I’ll tell you…” Dread said weakly. Sodden then grabbed the back of his head and pressed it down further into the ground. Dread yelled in pain as he continued to lose his stability.

“I’m going to guess she’s in a room somewhere down here.” Sodden said. Dread growled softly.

“Yeah… incubator near the tip. Speeds up… embryo growth by 10 times. You only have 50 minutes to get that Reaper out, Sodden. How are you going to… ugh. You’ll fail. You will not win. All it takes is for her heart to stop… and…” Dread said weakly.

“Listen. If that happens, we go to Ragnarok immediately. My tribe will protect us.” Sodden said. Dread growled softly.

“Okay, okay… yeah. You’re smart. You’re the one to kill me. But she… she’s the real catalyst. You… you’re done… you won’t be able to do it… just… can’t…” Dread said weakly. His speech began to trail off. His essence began to decay. Essence stability was down to 20 percent. Dread sighed softly.

“Just… go… get her… just leave…” Dread said quietly. Finally, his speech stopped, and he was barely breathing anymore. Sodden stood up and walked forward. He picked up Dread’s sword and ran down the halls, and Dorack crouched down near Skyocean to help him. Dread’s implant flashed rapidly, a red and orange color, then it made a ding noise and became gold, then its color darkened and faded away. And a death message appeared. For Sodden. Dorack. All of Nudon. For everyone in Drake Death. The culmination of what had lasted over an year. Sodden ran down the hall, then saw a giant blue door near the bottom. He looked up at it, and it was wide open. Inside was a giant cryopod like structure. It had a glass hatch on the top. There was a panel on its side. The inside was soft and warm, and warm air was pouring in through the machine. There was a tube attached to Serenity’s belly. And on the panel, there was a countdown. The embryo’s picture was shown next to it. The embryo had quadrupled in size since then. It was getting close to being done. Sodden scoffed and swung the sword at the panel, smashing it and causing it to malfunction. He didn’t have time to lose. It caused the cryopod to make a whirring noise, then it faded away. The tube then disconnected and the air stopped pouring in. Then the hatch hissed as it began opening. Sodden gasped. He walked to Serenity, then put his hands inside the hatch, and picked her up with his hands, and when Sodden was done, he found her bag, then put it on his back, making him quite heavy, then he walked out of the room, trying to get back to the exit. Dorack had put bandages on Skyocean’s legs, then he saw Sodden slowly walking with Serenity in his hands. Dorack ran to Sodden.

“I’ll carry that other bag. Get to Drake. Okay?” Dorack said. Sodden nodded. He walked up to the exit, about to leave the place.

Sodden rose from the entrance, and Cooper gasped as he stood up and looked at Sodden. Every piece of Drake Death’s tribe was gone. All their tames and structures were unclaimed. There were multiple soldiers from the tribe dying due to their creatures going wild again. Some lost control of their creatures, others were eaten. Sodden hadn’t won yet, though. He still had to get that Reaper King out. Cooper ran to Sodden and Sodden gave him his bag.

“Syl, we need to go.” Sodden said as he turned to the other Rock Drake, a magenta colored one. Syl nodded, and Cooper picked up Serenity and put her on the back of Syl. Sodden climbed down, and after he did, he saw Dorack coming out, with Skyocean limping on a crutch. Both went to Drake, and got on too. Nal had recovered mostly and she was on Drake’s back. Cooper climbed up onto Drake’s back, with Dorack and Skyocoean. Both Drake and Sylveevee took off and went to fly back to the Aberration Kingdom.

11:18 PM…

The group had just arrived back in the Aberration Kingdom. Syl and Drake were morphed into human form now. They were running towards the main entrance to the castle. Sodden had Serenity in his hands, and Nal and Dorack were besides each other, running behind Sodden. Syl, Drake, Skyocean, and Cooper had opened the door and had cleared the way for them to enter. When Sodden entered, Syl walked to him.

“Come with me.” Syl said. Sodden nodded, and Syl walked to the left, towards a door. The door led down to a basement, and there was a chamber at the bottom. Syl opened the door, and Sodden walked down the stairs. When he reached the bottom, he saw three big cryopods lined up on the right of the wall. They all had a panel on the front, and there were two holes in each one, with a rubber like formation hanging from each of them. The pods were for Reaper extractions. Syl walked ahead of Sodden, and towards one of the pods. Syl stood besides the panel and Sodden walked towards it.

“Okay. I know you’ve never done something like this before. Basically, you gotta use a rotating drill made of wool to softly push the Reaper towards the… well…” Syl said as she pointed to her behind. Sodden gasped softly and nodded.

“Okay, then if its head starts sticking out of the opening, you gotta get that thing out. It’s not fully conscious. But it will wake up after a few minutes of being out, so you have to get her out quickly. This will not be easy, but it has to be done.” Syl said. Sodden nodded. There was a small pair of steps near the side of the pod, and Sodden walked to it, then walked up to the top of it. Syl then looked at the panel and activated the hatch. The glass door hissed as it opened slowly, and Sodden then placed Serenity in the hatch, her head facing to the front, and the soft rotating device on her belly. Sodden placed her body inside, and Syl closed the hatch. Sodden sighed and walked back. Syl then activated the rotating sphere, and as soon as she did, gas began to pour into the pod. It was cool and soft. It would ensure the Reaper King came out. Then, sure enough, they heard quiet clicking noises, and then quiet huffing. Syl gasped and walked to the other side of the pod, then walked up some smal set of stairs. She then put her hands inside the rubber, then watched carefully as her behind began to move softly. The Reaper King screeched softly, half conscious. It was growling softly, trying to move. Then it got moved backwards, towards the lower end of Serenity’s stomach and towards her behind. Syl gasped as she saw a small, dark brown and slimy head poke out of the hole. Its eyes were shut, and it could barely move its head. It tried to move out, but it was stuck. Syl sighed and put her hands on the head,, slowly and carefully pulling it out. The Reaper King was still half conscious, so it barely moved. Syl then finally got the tail out. Serenity then gasped softly as she opened her eyes, noticing where she was. She looked behind her to see Syl holding the Reaper King in her hands. Serenity gasped softly as she looked ahead. Sodden walked to the panel and looked up at her.

“Hey. How you doing?” Sodden asked. Serenity sighed softly.

“Alright, I guess. A lot better since that thing’s gone now.” She said. Syl then turned to Sodden, and opened her mouth to say something, but before she could do it, a arm suddenly wrapped around her neck and a dart suddenly got slammed into her neck. She screamed and gasped softly, groaning a bit, then she fell over to the ground, unconscious. Then someone walked from behind Syl. Sodden gasped in shock. It was Rod.

“Did you really think you would get away with this?” Rod sneered. Sodden scoffed.

“How did you even get in here?” Sodden asked in confusion. Rod chuckled.

“That’s not my concern.” Rod growled. He then took a pistol out of his bag then pointed it at the cryopod.

“You are going to step away from that panel right now.” Rod growled. Sodden gasped. He had no choice. He backed away slowly. Rod growled softly and walked closer to Sodden.. Serenity gasped in horror and yelled as she tried to bang on the hatch. She was able to flip over, but she couldn’t sit up right. The Reaper King was on the floor besides her, curled up and growling softly. It would wake up soon due to the conditions. It had woken up completely in Dread’s base, but after losing the conditions it needed to live, it fell asleep again. But now, its consciousness was returning. Sodden backed away, holding up his hands as Rod aimed the pistol at his chest, walking towards him.

“Why couldn’t you just… give up when you had the chance? Like Dread said, all it takes is for a death message, red or gold, to appear on Terad’s tribelog. I’ll just kill you and put you out of your misery.” Rod growled. His fingers rested on the trigger, about to pull it. Syl groaned softly as she began to open her eyes, her vision was blurry. She groaned as she got up. Her torpor had drained completely, and she felt a deep pinch in her neck. She took the dart out of it, and gasped as she noticed Rod trying to kill Sodden. Syl scoffed and took a sword out of her bag, and ran at Rod to strike him. Rod scoffed.

“Yeah. I’m not dumb.” Rod growled. He then turned around to Syl and pulled the trigger, launching a bullet into her shoulder. Syl screamed in pain as she fell to the ground, gripping her shoulder. Rod chuckled and raised the pistol again, aiming it at her chest. Syl gasped as she looked up to Rod, aiming the pistol at her. Syl’s sword was on the ground, besides her. Sodden ran at Rod, trying to tackle him, then Rod took another pistol out of his bag and aimed it at Sodden. Sodden gasped as he stopped moving. Rod scoffed.

“Well. Unless you wanna return to the Island with base stats, and unless Sylveevee wants to die, I’m gonna suggest you stop moving. Just watch the carnage unfold. You see… that Reaper King was about to wake up in Dread’s base. But you stopped the process. But you merely delayed his awakening. And it’s even better when Serenity’s awake… heh. Yeah… you’re done.” Rod sneered. He looked up at the cryopod. And sure enough, the Reaper King was beginning to stand up, growling deeply. Serenity gasped in terror and started banging on the glass. The Reaper growled as it crept closer and closer to her. Sodden gasped in horror.

“No…” Sodden said. Serenity was gasping quickly, trying to keep the Reaper away from her. The Reaper King would not budge. Serenity then kicked it against the wall, and held her foot against the wall, trying to pin down the Reaper. Serenity gasped as the Reaper shoved her foot away and lunged right at her chest. She screamed loudly as the Reaper punctured her shoulders with its claws, ripping her body apart and causing blood to spray across the pod. Syl yelled and ran to the side, leaping forwards. Rod pulled the trigger but Syl dodged it, and Syl lunged at Rod. Sodden gasped in shock.

“Go save her! I’ll handle Rod!” Syl yelled. Sodden growled and ran at the pod, which was beeping loudly. It was broken. Serenity screamed as the Reaper dug right into her chest, causing blood to pour out of her. She tried to hold the Reaper back, but to no avail. Sodden picked up Syl’s sword and swung it at the glass, and it directly struck the sides, causing the whole thing to shatter and vanish, with shards falling onto the floor. Sodden immediately grabbed the Reaper King and pulled it right off of Serenity. It screeched loudly as it tried to escape. Sodden ran to a nearby cage, reserved for Reaper Kings, and Sodden kicked the door open with his foot and threw the baby into the cage, then locked the cage immediately. The Reaper couldn’t get out. Sodden then turned around to Serenity and ran towards her. Sodden picked up Serenity, who was coughing and sniffling, gasping softly. She was barely conscious. Then, they heard quick footsteps. Cooper and Drake ran downstairs.

“Hey! What’s all the commo- OH MY SWEET JASPER BERRIES!!! WHAT HAPPENED HERE!!” Cooper yelled in shock. He noticed Serenity bleeding out, blood all over the pod, and Sylveevee being strangled by Rod. Drake gasped in horror.

“Tell Skyocean to get down here!” Drake yelled. He ran at Rod and grabbed his neck, throwing him off of Syl. Syl gasped as she stood up, gasping for air. Syl whimpered as she walked over to Cooper. Cooper embraced her just then.

“Cooper. Go help Sodden.” Syl said. Cooper nodded. He let go and ran to Sodden. Blood was dripping onto the ground. Sodden had gotten a few gauze pads on her chest and shoulders, but it wasn’t enough.

“Okay. Come with me. Fast.” Cooper said. Sodden nodded, and they both ran straight upstairs.

11:48 PM…

It had been 30 minutes since the attack. Aberration Kingdom almost had to go into lockdown mode. Rod was inside of a cage in their dungeons. Their dungeon room was on the second floor of the castle. Syl was inside the throne room, along with Cooper. Drake, Skyocean, Dorack, and Nal all stood outside of a big room, lined with raised beds. Each one had a blanket sweeping over them. To the corner was Sodden, sitting on a chair next to Serenity, who was lying on a bed. She was unconscious. She had stitches and staples on her chest, a blood bag attached to her right shoulder, and stitches on her shoulders. Her health continued to decline. It was at 9.4. Another second passed. 9.34. Sodden sat there, nervously. He hoped it would be enough to get her going again. But her heart was slowing. Sodden really did not want a death message to show up, for obvious reasons. Sodden sat there, tapping his foot against the floor. Then he stared down at her chest, and noticed some blood was oozing out of her shoulder. Then a crack appeared. Sodden gasped. He immediately grabbed a bandage out of his bag and pressed itt down on her shoulder. The blood bag unfortunately got disconneccted. It tore itself out of the shoulder because of the pressure of the stitches. Sodden stopped the bleeding, but he had to pray she would be fine on just 6 pints of blood. But the health was declining faster. 8.9. Then 8.8. Then 8.67. Then 8.49. Sodden scoffed and walked to the other end of the room, where there was a debifillaltor inside a small glass box. Sodden openned the box and took the debfillator out of it. He walked to Serenity, then took the debfillator out of the bag it was in. But he noticed, it was dead. It had a red light on the bottom. Sodden groaned and sat down on his chair. 7.8. 7.6. 7.45. Nal and Dorack walked in to see Sodden’s head down. Dorack sat down on the bed besides him.

“Dude. What’s wrong?” Dorack asked.

“Freaking debfillator’s dead.” Sodden said. Dorack sighed.

“We need gasoline for that. Is there gasoline in here?” Dorack asked. Nal then took a bin out of the underside of the bed Serenity was on. Nal looked inside, and sure enough, she found a small cup of gasoline. She ran to Sodden, and Sodden grabbed the can and oopened the defib’s fuel tank. Sodden poured it into a metal sphere, then closed the tank down. Sodden turned it on and stood up, then placed the pads on Serenity’s chest. 4.7. 4.5. 4.3. Sodden had to act fast. He then held the shock machines over her chest.

“Clear!” Sodden yelled as he brought them downwards, sending a shockwave through her body. But her heart could barely start. 3.8. 3.6. 3.3.

“I’ve been here before, Sodden. Just keep trying.” Dorack said. Sodden took a deep breath, then did it again. Her heart couldn’t start well. It was barely going. And Sodden scoffed and looked inside of her mouth. He opened up Serenity’s mouth and looked inside. Sodden groaned and reached inside, then slowly lifted it out. It was some kind of device. It was made to block her airway over time. To ensure Sodden couldn’t get out of the place without consequences. Consequences that would arrive in 15 seconds. Sodden groaned softly and put his head down, and he activated the defib again, sending another shockwave through Serenity’s body. It barely accelerated her heart enough. 1.3. 1.02. 0.89. Sodden refused to give up. He then put his hands on her chest, then began rapidly pressing down on it. Sodden groaned as he kept doing it 10 times, two per second. Sodden kept trying. Then after a minute of going, Serenity’s eyes suddenly shot open, and she woke up, gasping quickly. She then moved her arm towards her chest,, and Sodden then sat down near her, right on the bed, sighing softly. Serenity chuckled softly. Sodden sniffled softly, gasping in relief.

“Oh… thank god…” Sodden sighed. He held Serenity’s hand, relieved that everything was okay. Sodden looked down at her, and Dorack gasped softly as he put his hands to his mouth. Sodden sighed softly as he stared at her. Serenity sighed softly as she tried to sit up. Her back hurt, and she was still in pain. But she was here. That was all Sodden cared about. It was over. The Aberration Ravage was over for good this time. Sodden sat on the bed near her, and Serenity sat up against the wall. Sodden embraced Serenity with his arms, and so did Serenity.

“I really thought it was the end…” Sodden said, his voice cracking. He sniffled a bit. Serenity chuckled softly.

“Yeah. Me too. Thanks, bro. We’ve come quite far, huh?” Serenity said. Sodden nodded softly.

They then heard soft rumbling across the ground. The ceiling of the Ark seemed to shake. The surface was clearing out. Reaper Kings, Seekers, all were digging underground. Ready to invade the underground caves. There were 70 survivors total on the surface, all on Rock Drakes. They watched the northern horizon as it glowed bright orange, shimmering brightly. Then a white glow appeared over it. Rays of light blasted across the horizon. Into their eyes. The survivors then let out cheers of excitement, some launching flares into the air, small fireworks bursting in the air. The sun began to peek over the horizon, and as its disk rose above the horizon, the survivors in Aberration Kingdom couldn’t help but look up.

“It’s 11:53. Sunrise is happening. The Ark is entering its polar day. No sunset…” Sodden said.

“Until approximately September 2nd…” Serenity said, smiling, Dorack sighed softly.

“It’s poetic, isn’t it. A new age on the Ark, a new period of daylight. God… what is it like when polar night comes?” Dorack asked. Serenity chuckled.

“Everybody’s just fighting over getting drops over and over. They have to bring insanely powerful creatures up there to survive the waves of Reaper Kings, both wild and tamed. That’s why a lot of breeding happens during the polar day.” Serenity said.

“Well… what was it like when you came over here?” Sodden asked. Serenity chuckled.

“It was like late August when we got here. First sunset was coming. Everyone was hyped. Well… at least until the whole… thing.” Serenity said.

“Yeah, yeah. It’s over, though. Dread’s gone for good. Now we just gotta get out of here.” Sodden said.

“What about Rod?” Nal asked. Sodden sighed and stood up, taking Serenity’s hand. She slowly stood up, and looked up at Nal.

“Sylveevee will keep him in the dungeons. They have to ensure he never escapes.” Sodden said. Dorack chuckled.

“Well… in that case… you know what that means. Time to go back to the Island!” Dorack yelled. Everyone cheered in excitement as they walked out of the room. It was going to be near 10 AM on The Island due to the distance. But this wasn’t anything to Sodden. He would do whatever it took to eventually reach Dead Earth.

Day 15 of Aberration

12:04 AM…

Sodden and his friends were outside the walls. Sylveevee was morphed into a Rock Drake, and Drake, Cooper, and Skyocean were all near her. Sodden and Serenity faced Cooper.

“Well… guess this is it. It was nice seeing you.” Drake said. Sodden nodded.

“Yeah. It was good seeing y’all. Thanks for all your help.” Sodden said. The others nodded in affirmation.

“Well… when you get back to the Island… what are you gonna do?” Skyocean asked. Sodden sighed.

I’ll probably just start collecting resources to prepare to go to Ragnarok.” Sodden said. Syl nodded.

“Well, you wanna go now?” Syl asked. Sodden and his friends nodded, then climbed onto her back. Sodden sat up front, Serenity was right behind him, and Dorack and Nal sat behind her. Syl then turned upwards. The others waved their hands. Sodden sighed softly.

“Yeah. See y’all later.” Sodden said. Then Syl rooared and took off, gliding towards the north, to the terminal at the Ancient Device, aka the portals.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After some time, the group arrived at the portals. The big, overhead arcs going over the place, and a big metal ground extending across the place. Towards the end of a wall was a big tall, circular portal and in its center was some kind of transmitter. It was placed sideways, facing away from the wall, and it was quite large. The group traveled towards it, and there was a spot inside for transport between Arks. Syl then walked towards it, as it hung over some kind of metal floor, and Sodden got off the Drake to walk towards it. He used his implant to open its inventory, and there was a big holographic screen. Then he went to the “Transport” tab. The only option availble was The Island. For that, they needed the artifacts, all of which Sodden had. He took all three out of his bag, then placed them inside a container that had exited the transmitter. Then it retracted backwards, and the artifacts dissolved into the machine. Then the transmitter glowed brightly. Sodden then activated the transport mechanism. The transmitter flashed brightly, and made a deep beeping noise.

“Transport confirmed. Transporting to The Island in 120 seconds…” The transmitter said in a computerized voice.

“The main Rockwell Terminal is broken, so it’d be wise to use this.” Serenity said. Sodden nodded.

“Yeah, but what happened to it?” Dorack asked. Syl sighed.

“It’s likely Terad’s past shenanigans with the transport device to Extinction possibly drove its mechanism to become disabled entirely. The only way to restart it is to prove you’re worthy. Collecting the Alpha tributes from every Ark in the main path. From Ragnarok, Crystal Isles, Lost Island, and Fjordur. It’s 10,000 element, all these alpha tributes from bosses, 1,000 runes. You have a lot ahead of you guys.” Syl said. Sodden chuckled.

“We will do it. We can do it, guys. Right?” Sodden asked. Everyone nodded in agreement. Syl sighed.

“Okay. Then good luck out there. See y’all later!” Syl said.

“Bye!” Sodden and Dorack yelled as they waved their hands, and Syl leaped off the wall and glided downwards, then down south, towards her base. Serenity sighed softly.

“That’s it. Well, it’s time to plan for Ragnarok, guys.” Sodden said.

“Yeah. And of course, make sure Terad does not find out about all this.” Serenity said. Sodden chuckled.

“Yeah.” Dorack said. He was about to say something else, when his implant suddenly dinged. So did Sodden and Nal’s implants. They looked down at them. There was a message there. Dorack gasped softly and put his hands on his mouth. It was Codred.

“Guys? If you’re about to come home, come home right now. Terad’s about to raid our tribe. Something about… Aberration or whatever. I’ll explain later.” The message said. Sodden sighed.

“Wait… what happened?” Sodden asked, confused. He then groaned and looked over to the south.

“I think I know. Rod must have snuck to an obelisk, sent a message to the Island, and Terad found it. He knows. He knows of everything that happened down here. God dang… well. Better go, right?” Sodden asked as he turned back around. Everyone nodded in agreement. Serenity walked to him and took his hands.

“We just gotta go. Resources and everything. Our ascension data will allow us quick access to Ragnarok. The problem is getting what we need. Once we leave the Island… there’s no turning back.” Sodden said. Everyone grunted in agreement and looked at the transmitter. There was a bright blue sphere encircling everyone, and big beams of light striking down onto it. Then the sphere suddenly burst and the survivors were shot upwards, out of the Ark, and into a ascension path. From there, they could see the sun rising, its light flowing across the Arks. Fires ignited across the surface in what felt like slow motion.

“Oh, my god.” Sodden said, his jaw dropped.

“Well… we’ll be back. And when we return, we’ll be ready.” Dorack said. Serenity nodded in agreement. Nal had nearly recovered completely. Serenity and Sodden looked down at each other, and held hands. As they traveled through the path, away from Aberration, Sodden sighedd softly and looked at Serenity.

“I’m never gonna let anything happen to you. Terad has nothing on us.” Sodden said. Serenity chuckled lightly.

“You are very lucky to have us, Sodden. I never thought… when I walked outside at 4:40 AM that morning, that the green beam of light I saw was the beginning of… this. This crazy journey we’ve gone on.” Serenity said. Sodden nodded, sniffling softly.

“It’s JTAC forever, Serenity. It’s us that started it all.” Sodden said. Serenity nodded softly. They put their heads against each others, closed their eyes, and Sodden took a deep breath.

“I never thought this would happen again. But you… you came, and now we’re on this awesome journey… one that will change the Arks.” Serenity said.

“Yeah. I love you.” Sodden whispered softly. Serenity chuckled softly.

“I love you too, dude.” Serenity said softly. Their lips began to come closer to each other, making contact in a few seconds, embracing each other as they went through the path. Dorack and Nal were left speechless.

“I knew it from the start. Don’t bully me because of it.” Dorack said. Nal chuckled and lightly nudged his shoulder.

“Shut up, bro. I think we all deserve some peace right now.” Nal said. Dorack nodded softly. The four survivors then approached the Island, and the path suddenly shot downwards towards its force field, directly towards the volcano. A new era was arriving. One of joy, suspense, action, adventure….

And war…

The journey through all creatures had only just begun…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I honestly have no words to say. Almost an year, so much trouble with these chapters… congrats if you made it this far. Nearly 180k words of content is insane. Thank you to anyone who’s read the story, if you just started, you’re in the middle, or you finished reading this very chapter, just thank you for the support, feedback, all of that stuff.

You can expect more chapters per month, for real this time, and enjoy it because… well, Chapters 72-75 will be stupid insanely long.

Expect Chapters 72-74 to break 15k words, or maybe 20k.. And Chapter 75… you do NOT want to miss that.

They will absolutely take time to make. I hope you enjoyed this section. It was big, insanely action packed, and so much stuff happened. But the action in Section 3 will be nothing like you’ve seen so far in this story.

With all that said, thank you to SunnyFox, Nexus, and PrimalApex, who just started reading this awesome story. Thank you to Moon for nearly finishing Section 1! And of course, Ben… thank you for reading thus far and for all your feedback. I hope you all enjoyed this section AND this awesome chapter!

And I will see you all in Section 3 of Journey Through All Creatures!!

Bye-bye for now!

-RelatingHen8906

Chapter 46: The Depths of Aberration - The Elemental Vault

Note: Story starts in Achatina, The Island ABC order for Section I, Scorched Earth exclusives and Aberration exclusives for Section II and has a Prologue. Last chapter in Ravager, next chapter in Roll Rat.

Chapters to the end of Section II: 4!! Chapter 50 will be called Th X no r S ow

Cave Chapters: Aberration: Part 3/3: The Final Artifact

Day 8 of Aberration…

6:30 AM

The sun’s light slowly began to flood into the Ark. As its light began to enter the cave, light spread across the green zone. There stood a tall, mostly stone base with two floors. It sat atop a cliff and near the Mushroom Forest. There were railings on the cliff platform and on the back door. Inside was three beds, all with a storage box next to them. Sodden and Dorack sat on one, and lying on the bed was Sylveevee, her neck wrapped up in bandages and there were also gauze pads and bandages on her chest and legs. On the bed to the right of them was Reaper, who had bandages on her legs and claws, head, and her tail. Sodden sat there staring at Reaper, and Dorack was looking at Syl.

“How’s she doing this morning?” Dorack asked as he turned his head to Sodden. Sodden sighed.

“She’s been below half HP for days now. She’s still mostly stable now, though.” Sodden said. Dorack nodded slowly.

“Okay… uh, seems good. At least she’s better. Syl has been unconscious for some time, but she’s doing a lot better. The poison in her body has almost dissipated.” Dorack said. Sodden nodded slowly.

“Okay, good. Uh… how’s our metal doing?” Sodden asked. Dorack shrugged then stood up.

“Not sure. I’ll go check.” Dorack said. He then turned away and walked to the staircase to the second floor. There was a long line of forges on the other end of the floor, a smithy on one side and a fabricator and grill on the other. There were also two vaults next to the smithy. Dorack walked to the forges and saw that almost all the metal had finished smelting. Dorack then nodded and walked back downstairs.

“Most of our metal is done. You got the hide, right?” Dorack said. Sodden nodded.

“Yeah. Soon, we’ll have enough for two hazard suits. Hopefully we can do the Elemental Vault soon.” Sodden said. Dorack nodded slowly.

“Yeah. Hopefully.” Dorack chuckled. He then walked back upstairs and sighed softly. He walked to the forges, then used a pot to scoop the metal out of some of them. He moved the metal and hide to the smithy, then he took out all the red gems and gas balls that they had. It was enough for one full set of hazard suit. Dorack sighed.

“Sodden… no. I need to do this on my own.” Dorack whispered quietly. He was deeply concerned about Nal, and he was doubting if Serenity was even still alive, considering the circumstances. He knew how risky it was to leave him, but he knew he had to do something fast.

~~~~~~~~~~

Rod was drenched in a shiny and stitched together suit, which had a mask on the top and thick gloves and boots. He wore a hazard suit and was walking to Dread’s base. He stormed through the main gates, bashing the front door open and alerting everyone. Dread stood up from the office sitting just across from the door. The office had three computers, all with security camera for most of the base. Dread got up from the chair and turned to Rod.

“You said I had to come to talk with her.” Rod said. Dread chuckled.

“Yes. Yes. I did. That was the original plan for today. However, there was a little… complication that our little prisoner caused. So here’s the thing. She’s sitting in the Reaper cell dorms right now. She’s outside of the Reaper arena, the place where we execute those who dare go against me. I told her that she has one more chance to redeem herself with you. Said that if you two refuse to cooperate, Serenity’s going straight into the arena. And Xenideath is not afraid to strike at any prisoner that comes into her territory.” Dread said. Rod gasped.

“Wha… what did she even do? Why is she not in the arena yet?” Rod said sternly. Dread grinned and growled deeply.

“You see, she decided to release Queen Syl and ensure she went to help Sodden and his friend. I have a little… pattern with most of these prisoners. Getting impregnated by a Reaper Queen is bad enough, but it’s a billionfold times worse when it happens to someone who, may I reiterate… cannot respawn. These prisoners are the ones I bully further. Trauma, torture, extreme threats, that’s how I do things.” Dread sneered. Rod chuckled.

“In true Dread fashion. I should’ve known. Hmm. Anyway… let’s get on with our new plan.” Rod sneered. Dread chuckled.

“Still the same mean minion you always were. I knew it’d be hard for you on the Island, but when you got in contact with that noob Sodden and chickens Dorack and Nal, heh. It became so much easier. Come. Come. I’ll show you the way.” Dread said as he turned around and walked towards the door. Rod followed him as they both walked to the northeast part of the base, where the arena was.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sylveevee slowly groaned as her eyes began to open. Sodden sat on the bed next to her and turned around and gasped. Syl began to rub her eyes as she groaned. She began to sit up and look around.

“Hey. How you doing?” Sodden asked. Syl gasped as she turned to him.

“Hi. Doing good. Uh… how long was I out?” Syl said. Sodden sighed.

Around four days. We advanced a lot in time and we’re soon gonna do the Elemental vault. You’ll have to come with us to help.” Sodden explained. Syl gasped softly.

“What- what about the Aberration Kingdom? How are they doing?” Syl asked.

“We don’t know. We haven’t seen them. Maybe check your tribe logs.” Sodden said. Syl nodded and looked down at her implant. She tapped it lightly and she looked through the holographic menu that popped up. She looked at the tribe logs and saw almost nothing. The past four days were mostly inactive. She did see some messages from tribemates about her army and about Dread’s actions, but it wasn’t very important. Sodden sighed.

“Is Serenity even still alive?” Sodden asked nervously. Syl nodded.

“Probably. I know Dread. He likes torturing and bullying his prisoners. You can bet Dread did some horrible stuff to her in the past few days.” Sylveevee said. Dorack sighed softly and turned away. Sodden turned to Dorack and walked to him.

“Hey. Something wrong?” Sodden said. Dorack sighed as he reached into his bag.

“Nah, nothing. Uh… I already made the first hazard suit. Why don’t you go out and get the last of the resources and I’ll stay here with Queen Syl and Reaper.” Dorack said. Sodden nodded in agreement and turned to the door, then walked out of it, holding his bag. Dorack then walked to the door and closed it. Dorack then turned to Sylveevee.

“Okay, I need your help to do the Elemental Vault.” Dorack said. Syl sighed.

“I mean… yeah. I could become a Rock Drake and go there soon. Just…” Syl said, then Dorack cut in. He took a suit out of his bag and began putting it on.

“No. We’re going now. I can’t let this keep happening. This is something Serenity would want us to do at this point. Nal will be finished for good in a week. Rod is who knows where, probably in Dread’s base plotting a raid or something.” Dorack said. Syl gasped and stood up.

“Listen. I know how hard things are for you all, but we can’t just rush things and try and push hard. The only reason Reaper is still alive is because I intervened. I did what I knew was right. But if we expose ourselves again, terrible things will happen.” Syl said. Dorack groaned loudly.

“You don’t understand. Sodden… he’s the sole reason why we even decided to hunt down the Assassin Heart in the first place! Nal… she’s been with me for so long and went through so much! Didn’t you hear about the whole Snowball thing?” Dorack said. Syl sighed and nodded slowly, but before she could say anything, Dorack cut in.

“Queen Sylveevee, I request you to carry me to the Elemental Vault to get the last artifact. I’m trying to protect Sodden and get closer to saving Nal!” Dorack stated sternly.

“By risking everything? All the things you went through to get here? If Rock Death sees us, they will hunt us down. Camoflauge won’t help as you’ll still be visible on my back. I’m not just your normal everyday transport creature! Ugh. The point is, what you are doing is very dangerous and too risky. It risks the lives of me, you, Sodden, the rest of the gang, and my own kingdom. I… I can’t do it. I’m sorry.” Syl said sternly, then sighed and sat down on the bed and looked down. Dorack growled and turned to the door.

“Well… even if we go there normally, we still have a risk of getting caught. If we wait, it means less time to save Nal and less time to prepare for a raid against these people. We have to do this. It’s risky. But it’s for the betterment of all of us.” Dorack said. Syl sighed and stood up, then walked to Dorack.

“Are you sure you want to do this? Unlike natural Rock Drakes, I can’t give camouflage to the rider. So you are going to need to stay hidden.” Syl explained, with nervousness in her voice.

“Yes. Yes I am sure.” Dorack stated. Syl sighed and nodded slowly.

“Okay, fine. If you insist. But if we go down, the blame’s all on you.” Syl said sternly. Dorack nodded, then both survivors walked out the door, and Syl then morphed into a Rock Drake. Dorack got on and Syl then became transparent, matching the color of the ground and trees and walls. Syl then lifted off the ground. Dorack held on tight to the feathers as Syl zoomed forward, beginning to glide. Dorack put his hazard suit on while the two were talking so Dorack was all set. But could he do it and get home safely?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A large pair of gates bursted open. Rod used a metal club to burst them open. As he entered the room, he saw a large row of seats, each one enveloped in iron rods and ceilings. There was a small lock on each cell. Most of the cells were empty, and the rows of seats extended downwards around 8 rows until reaching a large metal railing. Beyond that was a large dome with tek surrounding the place, and transparent essence guarding the place and protecting from radiation. On ground level was a flat, rocky and sandy surface, with almost no foliage around. On the back side was a large pair of gates, made mostly of metal and stone. Near the center of the arena was a slightly lifted, curved, black pile of rocks. It seemed to be a burrow of some kind.

One of the cells near the bottom and next to the railing had someone in it. She sat crouched down, her head down between her knees. Rod walked down the stairs towards the cell. Rod looked around the area and then stormed to the cell, then banged it hard with a metal club. Serenity then gasped as she turned around and stood up.

“We need to chat. Step out of line one time and I’m throwing you straight into that arena.” Rod said. Serenity nodded in affirmatiion, then Rod whistled loudly and the two heard deep growling. Then the burrow shook and suddenly, lots of dirt was shot up into the sky as a creature launched outwards. Then the creature’s feet came down on the ground as it shrieked loudly and looked up at the stands. Rod chuckled as he stared at the creature.

“Ah, beautiful, isn’t it? If this hasn’t traumatized you for life, I don’t know what will. Anyway… about what happened four days ago.” Rod sneered. He sat in a nearby chair next to the cell. Serenity gasped as she turned around to see the Reaper Queen storming around the area, sniffing the ground.

“I originally wanted to talk about everything that’s been going down recently. I wanted to talk about maybe sending you back to the Island or something. But now… you’re just gonna sit here and rot. I don’t care what happens to you. What I care about is getting that idiot Sodden dealt with. Ugh. If it wasn’t for you and that idiot Queen Syl, we would finally had killed Reaper.” Rod growled. Serenity gasped softly.

“If she and Syl had died, we would’ve seen it on our implants since we assisted in that. But we didn’t. So listen up. You’re gonna stay here. You get almost nothing for the next week. Heh. By then… you’ll be begging to die.” Rod sneered. Serenity gasped then started banging on the cell door, yelling and swinging her arms at Rod. Rod backed away a little.

“Heh. Dread once took down a entire Reaper with nothing but his fists. I wouldn’t suggest trying to go against him.” Rod growled. Serenity then stopped and looked around the area, then looked back at Rod. She had tears in her eyes and a heavily bruised chest.

“I knew what I was doing. I knew Dread would easily annihilate these people on their own. I had to send Syl to save them. On The Island, you seemed like a completely normal, good-hearted survivor. But down here, you’re just the same little idiot you were during the Ravage.” Serenity said softly. Rod chuckled lightly.

“I refuse to listen to you. This would’ve been so much easier on you, Sodden, Dorack, and Nal if all you did was just… not do it. If you didn’t bring me. If you didn’t go with the others. They would’ve failed without you and they will still fail even with your help. All you did was destroy your friends faster than what would have happened if you hadn’t even gone. I saw no reason to return to Aberration until I heard about you guys. Anyway… you’d better step up as a prisoner here. Dread already treats you bad enough here. And I know you’re getting PTSD from just being here. If you don’t wanna get impregnated, then I suggest you slow your roll way down.” Rod growled deeply. He then scoffed and turned away. Serenity was silent. She sat down, gasping softly. Rod stormed up the stairs.

“Oh, and one more thing.” Rod sneered as he stopped halfway up and turned his head.

“Seems like a old friend of yours wants to say hi.” Rod growled deeply as he pointed to the arena to see the Reaper Queen staring at Serenity’s cell and screeching at it , banging on the walls. Serenity gasped in fear and backed away. As the Reaper’s tail bashed against the wall, Serenity’s heart began pumping faster as she gasped quickler. Rod cackled as he stormed to the door and opened it, then slammed it closed. The Reaper Queen screeched as it leaped up high and grabbed the railings. Serenity gasped as she turned away.

“No… no…” Serenity gasped. The Reaper Queen couldn’t do anything to her because of the height, but it could still terrorize her. The Reaper screeched in her face as Serenity crouched down and covered her head, screaming and gasping.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dorack sat on Syl’s back, traversing through the Red Zone. As he did, the Rock Drake hovered over Dread’s large base, and a arena. Dorack gasped as he looked down at the arena. He saw a Reaper Queen inside of it, screeching at something in the stands. Syl gasped.

“Dorack, keep your head down.” Syl said sternly. Dorack sighed.

“Something’s happening down there.” Dorack said. Syl sighed.

“We don’t have time for this. Stay hidden. We’ll chat later.” Syl said. Dorack groaned softly and leaned back onto Syl’s back as Syl kept gliding through the red zone.

They continued until they reached the southernmost part of the Red Zone, where there were multiple crevices and creatures. Dorack gasped as he saw the opening to the cave, the vast valleys and rivers of Element, and the deadly creatures of Reapers and Megalosaurs. Syl then glided through the medium-sized dark blue opening to the cave, gliding along a cliffside going down to a bright pink Element river. As they were gliding, Dorack looked down at his implant to see a notification from Sodden. He had gotten multiple messages since he left asking where Dorack was. And Reaper was in no condition to travel across even a small distance, let alone to the other end of the entire Aberration cave. And there was no way Sodden was traversing the entire map on foot again. Dorack sighed as he looked at the messages. He didn’t want to respond to them. He was confused about everything, but he was trying what he could to help. Syl entered the small cave entrance, gliding across elemental rivers and climbing cliffsides. They continued going through paths and chambers until reaching a massive drop-off in the middle of a chamber. The cliff went down to a large elemental pool. And in the middle of the chamber, just up front of the entrance, was a container. It had specks of light gleaming across it, and it shone brightly, humming quietly, and a beam of light shot through the middle of its center. Dorack got off the Rock Drake and walked towards the artifact container. He then put his hands on the lid of the container, and groaned as he shoved it off. The top then fell off and crashed off the edge of the cliff and fell down the pit. Dorack sighed and lifted the artifact out of the container and put it into his bag. Dorack nodded.

“That’s it. All three secured. Now we just gotta rescue Nal and Serenity then we can get the heck out of here.” Dorack said. Syl growled deeply to interrupt then she glowed brightly as she condensed down into her human form. As a shapeshifter, she was immune to radiation so she didn’t need a hazard suit. Syl sighed and walked to Dorack.

“You can’t just barge in there with a whole bunch of creatures and steal them back. It’s not that simple. Dread and his tribe have dozens of Megalosaurs in their defense army and a lot of Rock Drakes in their creature army too. There’s 4 Reapers in that army, including… uh… I don’t remember what her name is. I do know that it includes the Reaper that attacked Serenity. You’re gonna need my help to raid them, but it’s very risky to escort our army to your base. We saw how risky that was a few days ago.” Syl said. Dorack nodded.

“Agreed. But it has to be done. I think what you can do is return to your base to think of a plan. After you bring me back, of course. Then, me and Sodden can try to hatch as many Rock Drakes and Megalosaurs as possible. We only have seven days, though.” Dorack said. Syl sighed and turned away.

“Yeah… but how do you think Sodden’s gonna like all that? He doesn’t want to rush too much because he’s trying to protect us. I wouldn’t suggest going near the Rock Drake trench for half a week at least. Dread and his tribe are continuously raiding that nest so many times. If you push too hard, well… it can mean the end for you, Sodden, Serenity, and Nal. Nal’s essence goes away for good, Serenity experiences a slow and painful death, you get your implant shattered by Dread, and Sodden gets shipped to The Island where Terad does the rest.” Syl stated, with nervousness in her voice. Dorack had a confident look on his face.

“We’re already at risk of that kind of stuff right now. Waiting is bad. Means less time. You did say we needed time to get creatures.” Dorack said. Syl groaned and walked to Dorack.

“A mission to the trench means you get all the eggs there, and get out. You could do that in four to five days or something. You could get a massive army by the time you’re done. On like the 15th day or whatever of your time here-” Syl stated, then Dorack gasped and interrupted angrily.

“15? 15 days!! That leaves like 12 hours to save Nal! And… and what if it fails? What if you can’t get the army there and we can’t beat them and we… are you even listening?” Dorack yelled.

“Dorack, you need to be positive and confident in yourself. Okay? I get it’s hard to trust anyone when there’s so little that can be done, but we have to try all we can to do this.” Syl said as she put her hands on Dorack’s shoulder. Dorack took a deep breath.

“You do not understand the emotional and physical connection my tribe has with themselves. We’ve been through a lot. Especially what happened on April 27, 2023…” Dorack said, his voice breaking as he said the numbers. Syl sighed.

“Hey. Sodden’s waiting for you. Besides, your hazard suit isn’t gonna last forever. We’ll talk later.” Sylveevee said. Dorack nodded, smiling. Sylveevee then morphed back into a Rock Drake and Dorack got on her back. Then Syl glided straight out of the cave and towards the green zone.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After around an hour, Dorack and Syl arrived back at Dorack’s base, and Sodden was standing outside the front door. He was staring at the incoming Rock Drake. Then it landed on the ground next to the door and Dorack hopped off, and Syl morphed back into a human. Dorack sighed and turned to Sodden.

“Bro… again? Why do we have to do this every time? This… this is too risky for all of us. Stop. Where were you anyway?” Sodden said sternly. Dorack walked to him and reached into his bag and took out a artifact.

“I went with Sylveevee to get the Artifact of the Stalker. It was pretty easy and straightforward because, well, you know.” Dorack said. Sodden sighed.

“You are putting us all at risk. If this happens one more time-” Sodden said, then Dorack interrupted.

“We do not have time to wait. We’re just cutting it too close! Syl gave out a plan that only gave us like 12 hours to get Nal back and it literally could go wrong in so many ways. I’m done.” Dorack yelled. He stormed into the base and slammed the door before Sodden could say anything else. Sodden opened his mouth to say something, then he just looked away and sighed.

“Just go back to your base. We’ll talk later. We have some preparations to do.” Sodden said. Syl nodded and morphed into a Rock Drake then took off. Sodden turned around and walked into the base, closing the door behind him.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

-RelatingHen8906

Chapter 47: Tensions Rise

Note: Story starts in Achatina, The Island ABC order for Section I, Scorched Earth Exclusives and Aberration exclusives for Section II and has a Prologue. Last chapter in Rock Drake, next chapter in Seeker.

Chapters to the end of Section II: 3!!!! Chapter 50 will be called The Xe m r Show w

This is the Pre-Ante-Penultimate chapter of Section II

Day 11 of Aberration

Around noon

It had been a few days since the Elemental Vault descent. With each passing day, Dorack grew slightly more nervous. He and Sodden had gone out on a taming spree to collect some Megalosauruses. Dorack stood outside the main base, in a medium sized barn, with some dino gates on its front. Inside was a large room, with air conditioners on the left side, along with a feeding trough. There was a refrigerator, cooking pot, and grill to the right of the building. There were some baby Megalosauruses screeching as they walked through the barn, jumping at the grill and trying to bite it. Dorack was putting more meat in the trough then turned to the Megalosauruses.

“Hey, guys. Can y’all chill? Let’s not wreck the place, okay?” Dorack said as he chuckled and walked to the baby creatures. Dorack then picked up three of the five and moved them to the small pen that sat on the corner of the hatchery. Dorack then moved the creatures into the pen and walked towards the door. As he reached for the door, a thought struck him.

“Hmm. We do have a lot of stuff. We could… we could just go now.” Dorack whispered to himself. He sighed and walked out of the door. Sodden was inside the base, crafting some grappling hooks and ziplines. He was making two extra sets of hazard suits, so that he and Dorack would have spares. Sodden stitched fiber and hide together, and added red gems to enhance the protection. He continued to craft it while Dorack sat in the hatchery. They were slowly but surely building up an army, but Dorack remained uncertain if it would be enough. He wanted to meet with Sylveevee soon. Dorack sighed and walked out of the hatchery, closing the gates behind him. The adult Megalosauruses to the bottom right corner of the hatchery were in a pen and had breeding on, and beneath them was a few air conditioners, along with a generator a few feet from the pen, against the wall. Dorack walked to the base and opened the front door. Dorack then sighed and walked to his bed and looked down at Sodden’s bag.

“Only five days left… okay. We… we should go. I think we’re ready.” Dorack whispered as he gripped tightly on Sodden’s bag. Sodden then walked downstairs, holding the two sets of hazard suits in his hands. Dorack gasped and turned around, then let go and stood up from the bed. Sodden turned to Dorack.

“Did you check on the Megalosauruses?” Sodden asked. Dorack nodded.

“Of course. They should have enough food for a while. Anyway… why don’t we just go to the Rock Drake trench? Like, right now? We have all the ziplines and supplies we need.” Dorack asked. Sodden gasped and walked to his bag, and shoved all the items he had crafted into the bag, then Sodden closed it and put it on his back. He then turned back around to Dorack.

“Okay. Fine. Go ahead. But here’s the thing. Remember what Sylveevee said to us. You gotta be careful there. There’s going to be a lot of Rock Drakes there. We gotta be careful.” Sodden said. Dorack gasped and nodded.

“Okay.” Dorack said. He turned around, then Sodden put his hand on Dorack’s shoulder.

“Hold on. Please stay away from Dread’s base. I don’t want to see you doing anything funny.” Sodden said sternly. Dorack sighed and nodded.

“Of course.” Dorack said. Dorack wanted to do both: go to the trench and to Dread’s base. But if he wanted to do the latter, he would need Sylveevee’s help. Sodden and Dorack sighed and walked towards the front door, and Dorack opened it, and both survivors walked out the door. Sodden closed it then reached into his bag and pulled out a cryopod.

“Thank god Reaper’s all healed now.” Dorack said in relief. Sodden nodded in agreement. Sodden then threw the cryopod at the ground and Reaper came out of the cryopod. She then growled softly and looked up at Dorack and Sodden. Sodden and Dorack nodded and got onto Reaper, then Reaper roared as Sodden led her to run out of the green zone, far south to the Red Zone.

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After around two hours, Sodden and Dorack approached a large cliff on the south end of the Blue Zone. Right down a path to the side was the path towards the Rock Drake trench, deep in the Red Zone. Sodden and Dorack already had their hazard suits on, and they had spares in their bag, so they were all set. Sodden hopped off Reaper before they went down to the Red Zone. Sodden then put his bag onto the ground and looked into it.

“Okay. Reaper needs protection from the radiation. She’s not a aberrant. Uh… I made something.” Sodden explained as he stood up and took something out of the bag. It looked like a hazard suit, but there were strange shapes on the sleeves, that seemed to match the shapes of a raptor.

“Dorack, could you get off?” Sodden asked. Dorack nodded and hopped off of Reaper. Then Sodden took the raptor-shaped hazard suit, and Reaper growled softly as Sodden put the tail-shaped rump ending around Reaper’s tail, then put it along her legs, claws, then putting the mask on her face. The hazard suit would protect her body nicely, but it wouldn’t last forever, so they had to be quick, as Sodden only had time to make one single outfit for Reaper. The middle back of the suit was connected to the saddle, so Sodden picked his bag back up, and he and Dorack got on Reaper, and they continued down into the Red Zone.

They continued down the path, entering the radiation-filled Red Zone. The path went to the east, speckled with bright red and pink mushrooms, red rocks across the path, and towering pillars of natural cave rocks occasionally appearing along the way. Strangely, there were no creatures anywhere. No Reapers, no carnos, no purlovias, not even a single seeker. Dorack looked around and squinted his eyes, then hummed in confusion.

“There’s basically nothing here.” Dorack said. Sodden nodded as he looked around.

“Yeah. That’s good, but also very weird. Usually there’s a lot of creatures here. Unless someone recently killed everything here.” Dorack said. Sodden nodded.

“Yeah. In that case, we should be careful. It could be anyone.” Sodden warned. Dorack nodded in agreement. They kept going down the path, looking around the place. Dorack had his shotgun out and on his lap in case something happened. As they continued down, they heard a quiet squeak. Dorack gasped and looked to the east, holding his shotgun out. He aimed it at where he heard the noise, then he heard deep footsteps. The footsteps got closer. Then something appeared in front of him. There was a large magenta-colored Rock Drake tht had just became visible in front of him. Dorack gasped and put his shotgun away. Sodden turned around and gasped. The Rock Drake growled softly and then glowed brightly. She then shrunk down to human size, her tail retracting into her body, her claws retracting and her arms and feathers shrinking. She then walked to Dorack and sighed.

“What’re you doing here?” Sylveevee said. Dorack gasped.

“We’re… we’re here to get Rock Drakes.” Dorack said. Sodden nodded.

“Yeah. We’re going to the trench right now.” Sodden explained. Syl nodded.

“Okay. Well… there’s no creatures here, so that means Dread and his tribe was here recently. I wouldn’t suggest going to get the Rock Drake.” Syl said. Sodden gasped and looked down.

“Well, okay. We’ll just go in there and get some eggs.” Dorack said. Sodden gasped and shot his eyes towards Dorack, then put his hands on his shoulder.

“No. It’s too risky. She said Dread was there recently.” Sodden gasped. Dorack sighed.

“I refuse to not take this risk. Like… we need to get supplies for our plan!” Dorack yelled.

“Listen. Dread isn’t your average survivor. You were very lucky to have escaped him the other day. He could’ve easily killed all of us. Did Serenity tell you his attribute?” Syl asked. Dorack shook his head, and so did Sodden.

“I think it’s only that armor bounces off of armor. Or something, I don’t know.” Dorack said. Syl groaned.

“If that was the case, Dread would’ve died when Terad was here! There were so many instances where he could’ve died. He survived and barely on the edge. Dread has a implant attribute that’s extremely complex. His survivor level can go all the way up to 250. He’s not all that fast, and doesn’t have a lot of weight. But he’s extremely tanky, and has insane damage stats. I don’t know exactly what his stats are, but I do know that he is very powerful.” Syl said. Dorack nodded slowly in affirmation.

“Okay… and what else can he do?” Dorack said. Syl shrugged.

“I don’t know the other abilities he has. That’s all I know. But what I do know is that you need to be careful here if you really want Rock Drakes.” Sylveevee said. Dorack nodded.

“Okay. Got that.” Dorack said. Sodden nodded and looked ahead, and Reaper continued down. Dorack turned to Sodden and sighed softly. Syl smiled softly and turned away, then morphed back into a Rock Drake and flew back to her base.

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Sodden and Dorack arrived at a large, long and rocky valley an hour later. Strangely, there were no rock drakes in sight. But there were many eggs speckled across multiple cavesides. There were eggs hung on cliffs, rocks, and even slopes. Sodden sighed and got off Reaper, and so did Dorack.

“Okay. Dorack, you’ll take the left side. I’ll do the right. Keep watch for anything.” Sodden explained. Dorack nodded. They then looked into their bags, getting crossbows, grappling hooks, and ziplines. Sodden turned back to Reaper after he got the equipment out.

“Reaper, find somewhere safe to hide, okay?” Sodden said. Reaper growled in affirmation and ran towards a big rock on the wall, that had a gap behind it. Sodden and Dorack were ready to go.

Sodden was out on the right side of the wall, grappling up to walls and slopes, picking up the eggs, and then using a zipline to get down. Dorack was on the left wall, but he wasn’t getting eggs. He climbed all the way up to the top of the wall, out of Sodden’s sight. Dorack sighed and walked away from the trench. And sure enough, around half a kilometer south of the trench, Dorack saw a large, metal and tek castle, with large, metal walls surrounding the perimeter. There were metal spikes lining the base of the walls, along with a dinosaur gate, guarded by two Reaper Queens, both on alternating sides of the gate.. Dorack gasped and looked up at the ceiling.

“Okay… let’s see-” Dorack said, then he was interrupted by a angry voice.

“Dorack! What’re you doing here!” The voice yelled. Dorack then looked to the right of him, and Syl was walking towards him.

“I… I need to get in there and-” Dorack said. Syl interrupted him just then.

“For what? What is this even about!? Like… why do you even want to get in there now?!” Syl yelled, then Dorack interrupted.

“Look. I need to find Nal. I need to. I could use your camouflage to get in there and-” Dorack explained, then Syl yelled at him to interrupt. She was about to say something else when they felt the ground shake a little bit. They gasped and shot their heads towards the gate. The Reapers were screeching and running right at them. Syl growled quietly.

“Get on my back now.” Syl said sternly. Dorack ran to her as Syl quickly morphed into a Rock Drake. Dorack hopped onto her back and they took off just as the Reapers were arriving. One leaped up and opened its mouth, reaching for the tail of the Rock Drake, but barely missed Syl’s tail. Syl glided down to the trench, as Sodden was collecting eggs. He had put the fourth egg in his bag and was ziplining down to ground level when he looked up and gasped in fear. Dorack and Syl were going towards Sodden, and Syl grabbed Sodden with her claws, then flew back to Reaper the raptor. Syl dropped Sodden and growled at him.

“Get Reaper. Now..” Syl said. Sodden stammered and tried to say something, then he saw the Reaper Queens on the top of the cliff, roaring down at them. Sodden gasped and turned to his raptor, took a cryopod from his bag, then put Reaper in it. Sodden put the cryopod back in hhis bag as the Reapers leaped down to the trench. Sodden got back onto the Rock Drake, and they glided out of there as fast as possible. The Reaper Queens roared as the Rock Drake flew away. Rod was mounted on one of the Reapers, sneering and chuckling.

“It’s about time we strike. Creatures, back to base!” Rod yelled. The Reapers roared loudly, turned around, and went to the slope to leave the trench and return to the base.

~~~~~~~~~

Later that day…

Syl landed onto the ground near the base, then Sodden growled as he leaped off and grabbed Dorack’s arm and yanked him off the Rock Drake. Syl then morphed back into a human.

“Dorack, we need to talk.” Sodden said sternly. Dorack nodded. Sodden stormed towards the base front doors, pulling Dorack along with him. Syl sighed and followed the two as Sodden burst open the door and threw Dorack onto a bed. Dorack fell onto his back and sat up. Syl walked into the base and Sodden sat down at a bed sitting across Dorack’s bed. Sodden looked at Dorack and sighed in disappointment. He looked down and put his hand to his forehead.

“Dorack… explain what you were thinking at the trench.” Sodden stated loudly. Dorack sighed.

“I wanted to have Sylveevee sneak me into the base and -” Dorack explained, then Sodden looked up and interrupted, putting his hand down.

“Oh, okay. I see what this is. You’re abusing royality to put us at risk. Yeah. Yeah. Makes perfect sense!” Sodden yelled sarcastically, as he leaped up. Dorack growled deeply and stood up.

“That’s not what I want to do! I wanted to go in there and get Nal back in disguise. Syl could just morph into something like a Giga or a Titanosaur and annihilate the whole place!” Dorack yelled. Sodden was silent. He couldn’t even believe what Dorack said.

“Dread is extremely powerful. And must I remind you that the amount of mass in a Titanosaur would kill Syl relatively quickly? Yeah! And not even mentioning what happens if she falls. The weight means that she falling in that form means instant death. And a Giga alone is no match for, oh, I don’t know… like, a whole bunch of Reapers and Rock Drakes!” Sodden yelled. Dorack groaned loudly in exhaustion.

“I can’t do this anymore. I was trying to help save our friends! Syl could help us in doing that!” Dorack yelled. Sodden then snapped.

“What?! Our friends?! Can you just shut up? I refuse to let any one of you go near that base, especially not in front of Dread or Rod or anyone else! Who knows what Dread could do to Serenity if he saw you screwing over near his base! Oh, god. STAY AWAY FROM THE BASE! Or else I’m gonna lose my only best friend!” Sodden yelled in anger. He then gasped and put his hands to his mouth. Dorack’s jaw dropped, he was bamboozled and speechless. Syl was shocked too. She couldn’t even say anything. She just gasped softly and sat down on Nal’s bed.

“You… you love her. You never cared about me.” Dorack gasped. Sodden stammered.

“That wasn’t… that wasn’t what I meant!” Sodden stammered. Dorack sighed, slightly saddened.

“Yeah, but you said it. You said the words yourself. You don’t care about me or Nal.” Dorack said. He turned away. Sodden groaned.

“That’s not even what I meant! I… I was upset at you and I lacked judgement. I… I never even bothered to go back and ponder what I was gonna say to you.” Sodden said apologetically. Dorack then turned around quickly, stood up, and growled.

“Yeah, yeah. Then explain all the times you constantly flirted with her!” Dorack yelled. Sodden gasped and stood up.

“Go ahead. Say it. One more time. I dare you.” Sodden sneered. Dorack huffed and growled deeply.

“I understand if you don’t care about me or Nal. Or anyone else, for that matter.” Dorack said, with some distraught in his voice. Sodden growled.

“That isn’t even what I said!” Sodden yelled. Dorack then shoved him out of the way, and he fell over onto the floor.

“Yeah, but you said it! It’s true. You… you never cared!” Dorack yelled. Sodden gasped and stood up.

“Okay, fine. Fine! That’s how you wanna do things, huh?” Sodden yelled in anger, and he slapped Dorack in the face. Dorack yelled loudly and lunged at Sodden, and Sodden grabbed his shoulder and beat Dorack over and over on it. Dorack kicked Sodden in the leg repeatedly, and they fell on the ground, throwing punches and kicks to each other. Syl gasped in fear and nervousness and leaped up, then she tried to grab Dorack’s arms and pull him away from Sodden. Syl then shouted as she got launched backwards, into a storage box. She groaned as she stood up. Dorack and Sodden were getting bloody. Syl growled. She then glowed bright pink, magenta-like, and she roared as she morphed into a Therizinosaur, a smaller one, at that. She then screeched and ran at the two survivors, then used her claws to push Dorack and Sodden apart, holding them in seperate claws.

“You two need to chill out! We won’t advance if we’re just gonna fight!” Syl yelled. Sodden looked up at Syl and growled as he turned to Dorack. Dorack huffed and turned his head away.

“Fine. But I’m not talking to Sodden for the rest of this.” Dorack stated. Sodden growled in agreement.

“Fine with me.” Sodden said loudly. Syl sighed in relief and released her grip on the two survivors, then she morphed back into human form.

“Okay. You two need to at least compromise and get your army ready. We can’t afford to wait any longer. I’m gonna go back to the Aberration Kingdom and I pray that you two will be nice to each other. This is what Rod wants. For you two to become enemies. We can’t let that happen.” Syl stated sternly. Sodden and Dorack huffed and nodded. Syl then walked to the door, which remained open the entire time. Syl then walked out and closed the door. Meanwhile, Sodden and Dorack were looking through their bags.

“We need to hatch the Rock Drakes and Megalosauruses. We need more creatures.” Dorack said. Sodden nodded in agreement, focused on the bag and not making eye contact with Dorack.

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Meanwhile, someone had been watching the whole thing unfold from a distance. Near a tall mushroom tree stood a man, draped in black flak armor and with a gas mask on his face. He had a spyglass in his left hand. He watched the entire fight unfold and to say he was pleased would be a understatement.

“Hee, hee, hee. Yes. They’re becoming enemies now. Phase two is complete! Time to begin phase three!” The man sneered. This was Rod, who had snuck behind the base, and he had begun the beginning of the end.

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To be continued…

-RelatingHen8906

Chapter 17: Towering Skylord

Note: Story starts in Achatina, The Island ABC order for Section I, and has a Prologue. Last chapter in Microraptor, next chapter in Pachyrhinosaurus.

Chapters to the end of Section I: 8

This is Cave Chapters: Part ⅕: The Skylord Cave

Two hours after Sodden entered the cave, he left holding the artifact in his hands, a broken shotgun, and two dead Basilos and three injured ones. He rose up to the surface and got off. He gave the injured, bloodied, and bruised Basilos some meat then put them in cryopods. Sodden put his broken and damaged gear in his bag, threw out his pteranodon, got on and took off towards Nudon to prepare for the last 4 caves, the Skylord, the Cunning, the Immune, and the Strong, the four deadliest caves.

He arrived at the base after an hour and landed near the castle, where Red was sitting on the stairs to the castle. “Oh, you’re back! So that’s it for the three caves.” Red said. Sodden hopped off and put his pteranodon in a cryopod, then walked to Red. “Yeah. We got four caves to go.” Sodden said. Red got up just then and walked to the castle door. “Come in with me.” Red said. Sodden walked into the castle with Red and they walked to the forge room. “This is where we grind for weapons and saddles, and upgrade our weapons. It took us 5 weeks of grinding just to make the god shotgun and upgrade it. You’re gonna need some good stuff. These four caves you have left are the hardest.” Red said. He walked to the big map on the other end of the room. “These four red dots show the four hardest caves. The one in the northwest is the Skylord cave, full with death spikes and freezing-cold water. It’s not that bad. You can take a shortcut to the left leading you to the artifact. You just need a grapple to get up that ledge. Then the cave in the east, off the shore of the wetlands is the underwater cave holding the Artifact of the Cunning. The creatures are way worse in there, so it’s all about speed to get through. Just be smart of where you’re going. Then the cave in the redwoods is the swamp cave, hosting the Artifact of the Immune. The cave is full of poisonous fumes, insects, and arthropleuras whose acid spit can destroy armor insanely fast. So bring a gas mask, a good Megatherium pack, and you’ll be fine. And finally, the cave just besides the ice river and near the mountain… well… we’ll get to that later.” Red said, pointing at the red dots. “What’s with the cave near the mountain?” Sodden said. “Yeah… there’s no core counter to this cave. It’s called the Ice Cave. We’ll think about that cave later.” Red said. He proceeded to leave the room, but Sodden grabbed his arm. “Wait. You didn’t give me supplies for the Skylord cave.” Sodden said. Red stopped at the door and turned around. “Yeah, okay. Nameless’ base is at the top of Whitesky Peak, so you can’t fly past the mountain without Nameless seeing you. You have to use the icy cliffs. You should fly besides the icy caves and close to the water to ensure they don’t see you. Then cryopod the pteranodon to make sure Nameless doesn’t find him.” Red said. “What if they decide to raid us again?” Sodden asked. “Well… our Rexes are ready for battle again. And we have the god shotgun. Hopefully we can hold them off if they do come. Since they don’t have their leader, hopefully it’ll be easier.” Red said. “I hope so.” Sodden said. Red walked to someone at a smithy, and whispered in their ear. They took some metal and arrows, and crafted two grappling hooks. Red walked to Sodden and gave him a primitive crossbow. “We have a plan to hold off Nameless if they come, so you do not have to worry about us.” Red said. Sodden nodded and walked out of the room and out of the castle. He threw out the pteranodon and got on. He took off and flew towards the snow.

Sodden rode his pteranodon close to the water, behind the icy cliffs of the northwestern Arctic. He approached the cave’s entrance below the rocky cliffside just north of the mountain. Sodden rode towards the path and hopped off at the bottom of the path. He put his pteranodon in a cryopod and walked into the cave. His ascendant flak would stop the cold from decimating his health in the cave, so he could roam easily. He went left into a tunnel that led further left, and found a small room with a path narrowing and a pit with death spikes. Sodden aimed his crossbow to the ledge and shot the grapple at the roof. He grappled up and touched down onto the ledge, shot down some bats, and opened the artifact container. He took out the Artifact of the Skylord. He jumped back down to the path then ran towards the cave exit. He got out, threw out his pteranodon, and right away took off to fly towards Nudon.

As he approached the base, he saw Gigas falling down the hill. He saw that the wall was slightly damaged, and someone stood on a Giga in front of the wall, shooting down the Gigas that came. Sodden flew closer, and gasped in shock as he saw Rod on his Giga. Rod turned and saw Sodden coming. “Oh, hi. Good to see you again. Uh… we’re in a bit of pickle here. Nameless’ Gigas came to attack us.” Rod said. Sodden landed, put his pteranodon in a cryopod, and took out the god shotgun to shoot down the Gigas. The god saddles the Gigas had broke after six shots and Sodden ran under the Gigas, who were focused on Rod’s Giga, and went behind the walls. He climbed up to shoot down the remaining Gigas.

After Nameless lost their Gigas and retreated, Sodden had left on his pteranodon to take down some creatures, like a Otter, Pachy, then a Oviraptor. After an hour, he returned to talk to Rod. “Well… can we talk now? So I hear you’re doing the caves.” Rod said. “Yeah. You gonna help me with the Cunning cave?” Sodden asked. “Of course. That’s a hard one. Fighting and standing against the creatures is a no-go. We’re gonna have to depend on speed. A Diplocalus would be good. It’d give you oxygen, so you could wear the normal flak armor and be fine. I have a few really good ones.” Rod said. He took out a cryopod and handed it to Sodden. “That has one of my best Diplocaluses in it. Hopefully it helps.” Rod said. Sodden nodded then went to his pteranodon, but before he took off, Red walked up to him. “Hey. Be careful there.” Red said. Sodden nodded. The pteranodon took off and they flew east towards the Caverns of Lost Hope.

Three caves to go…

-RelatingHen8906

Chapter 9: Raid On the Mountain Range

Note: Story starts in Achatina, The Island ABC, and has a Prologue. Last chapter in Deinosuchus.

The NEXT CHAPTER is Chapter 10, the Giganotosaurus chapter. I’ve been building the storyline over time, thinking of how each chapter will go! Last time, Sodden completed the first section of creatures to kill for the day, then Serenity got him to go back to C Tribe’s base because SOMEONE IS THERE WITH A TITAN!!!! Chapter 10 will be a long chapter, maybe longer than Chapter 6. The chapters so far might seem boring to you, or uninteresting, that’s just what I see, or maybe it’s fun, not sure. Either way, let’s prepare for Chapter 10.

“Wait… you’re telling me that the person raiding has a Titanosaur!?” Sodden said as his Giga ran across the hills to Far’s Peak. “Yes, he does. We haven’t even thought about fighting a Titan.” Serenity said as her Giga ran beside Sodden’s Carcha. “Dude. I’ll have to fight that someday to check it off the list. I cannot die. I do not want to lose my levels.” Sodden said. “Well, lucky you can come back at all because people in the C tribe cannot respawn!” Serenity said. “WHAT!? Why didn’t you tell me sooner?!” Sodden screamed. “I just…” Serenity said. “This is a horrible time to tell me this. I cannot fight a Titan! I’m only Level 26 and this is the only real Titan killer I have! What the…” Sodden said. He looked up and saw smoke coming from the mountain’s base. “What the heck?” Serenity said. “I still have creatures to fight. I have to go underwater for the next three creatures. Think you can distract the Titan?” Sodden said. “We can try to lead it away.” Serenity said. “Okay. We have a plan. Just be careful.” Sodden said. “You too.” Serenity said. She threw a cryopod at Sodden and he caught it. Sodden nodded and ran towards the shore in the small valley. Serenity kept going towards the base.

When the Carcha stepped a foot into the water, Sodden hopped off and threw the cryopod out into the sea. Then a large Mosasaur came out. Sodden turned around to see his Carcha. “Hey, stay here. I’ll be back soon.” He said. The Carcha murmured in agreement. Sodden ran into the water, hopped onto the Mosa, put on the scuba gear, and disappeared into the water.

Serenity arrived to the base to see Terad’s Giga army fighting a Carcha army. The Titanosaur was approaching the castle. “Oh, no.” Serenity said. Terad noticed her in the distance. “Dude! Leave! I cannot lose you.” Terad said. “You cannot let your hate towards Rod consume you! You treat your tribe like slaves every time Rod comes. You keep us away. You can get hurt, or even die in this situation! That Titanosaur can destroy us! Focus on now.” Serenity said. “Shut up! Just… NO!! Stop!” Terad yelled as he jerked his head towards the Titan. He ran to it. “NO! Stop! What about Grease! You love Grease so much! DON’T RISK SUCH A VALUABLE TAME JUST BECAUSE YOU HATE ROD!” Serenity screamed. Terad didn’t respond or look back. He kept going towards the Titan to bite it. “Stay away from my friends! You have no right to assault my…” Terad said. The Giga bit the Titan’s leg and it screeched in pain. It turned around and looked down at Terad. Then someone walked to the edge of the saddle and looked down. “Well… I tried. Goodbye, my friend.” He said. The Titan lifted his feet. The Giga screeched and tried to leave, but Terad stopped him. “No. We take down this monster together.” Terad said. Then the Titan’s feet came down and caused a huge shockwave that pushed everything and everyone within 400 meters away. The walls behind the Titan immediately exploded and almost all of the Gigas got pushed back. Terad got flung off and Grease got hit directly by the attack. He tumbled down the hill and then collapsed on the ground, unconscious. Terad landed in a bush a few hundred meters from the base.

Sodden rose from the water with a euryptid in the Mosa’s mouth. He put the Mosa in the cryopod and swam to shore. But when he was climbing on the Carcha, he heard a loud boom. The wind pushed Sodden off the Carcha. He stood up, climbed onto his Carcha, and set out towards the base. After a few minutes, he arrived there and saw the entire Giga army knocked down, part of the walls destroyed, and Terad nowhere to be seen. Serenity’s Giga walked up to Sodden. “What happened here?” Sodden said. “Terad snapped over Rod because he could not stand him. Then he decided it was a good idea to attack the Titan, something he couldn’t do alone. And his rage got his favorite tame almost killed. Part of the wall is broken.” Serenity said. Sodden looked around the field and gasped. The Giga was lying below the Titan, unconscious. There was blood pouring out of its leg. Terad was nowhere to be seen, and the Giga army was down, injured, and unconscious. Then they heard a bush rustle. Then someone ran out of it. He looked around and saw the Titan walking away from the mountain. “They’re going back to their base,” Sodden said. “Not under my watch!” Terad yelled. He ran to his hurt Giga and tried to get him to wake up. “Hey! This is not the time to lay around! We gotta kill that Reaper-feeder, nightmare bringer that ruined my plans!” Terad yelled. Sodden hopped off and ran to him. “Terad! Snap out of it! Look what you did!” He yelled as he pointed his arm towards the fallen Gigas and the survivors on them. Terad looked around and saw Serenity’s Giga. “Okay. We need to get Rod. Now.” Terad said. He ran to the Giga and hopped on it. He directed the Giga towards the retreating Titan. Sodden got on his Carcha and followed.

After around an hour, the Titan arrived at the Giga mountain. Sodden’s Carcha had a horse and Gali in its mouth. Terad was beside the Carcha, riding Serenity’s Giga. Terad shot a grapple towards the platform saddle and reeled towards it. He climbed on to talk to Rod. Rod immediately turned around and said, “Dude. You have to snap out of it. I know there are better ways to deal with rage than this.” Terad didn’t respond. He hit Rod off the Titan. He managed to catch Sodden’s Carcha and then climbed on. “Oh. Hey, dude.” Sodden said. “Terad, calm down!” Rod yelled. Terad didn’t respond. Instead, he jumped onto the Giga and ran down the hill. “Dude!” Sodden said. “Give me Rod,” Terad sneered as his Giga turned around and started growling. “I was not in the Ravage! I did nothing to Serenity! I did not hurt her in any way! I did not send in that Carcha army! I only came with them to confront you! I did not hurt her or you or anyone in your tribe! You can shut up about the…” Rod said. He was about to finish the sentence when something consumed the two survivors entirely, ripped them off the Carcha’s back, and pushed the Carcha off the mountain. Everyone gasped. That wasn’t C Tribe’s Giga or Rod’s.

That was a wild Giga.

Sodden (Level 26) was killed by a Giganotosaurus (Level 135)!

Rod (Level 11) was killed by a Giganotosaurus (Level 135)!

To be continued…

-RelatingHen8906

Chapter 8

Swamp Rod

Note: Series goes through The Island in ABC order, starting in Achatina and has a Prologue. Some chapters include multiple creatures. Last Chapter in Ceratosaurus, next chapter in Dunkleotusis

This is the penultimate episode before the Giganotosaurus episode. It will be a crazy long chapter, and it will get this series on the pace we’ve been building up to.

Also, tell me, what are your thoughts on the series so far? Any kind of feedback will help me improve the series greatly!

Giganotosaurus is not the end, however, it is a big plot twist that will get us hyped up for the rest of the series!

The group was running through the jungle, chasing down Sodden, who had previously decided to run off without the others. The Gigas were stomping across the grass, and trees were being knocked over. Poor Dodos were getting squished, and Terad was speechless. Serenity was beside him. “Is this about the Ravage?” Serenity asked. “My friend, do not speak the name. The torture you went through during that time…” Terad said. “Can we just move on? It’s over! That was a long time ago.” Serenity said. “I can never forget what Rod did to us. Do not worry, I will protect you from him.” Terad said. “Dude, just move on! Rod probably forgot about this!” Serenity said. “Do you have any idea what it was like to have a freaking Reaper Queen growing inside you for 12 horrible hours because Rod lost his loot? He tried to kill you! Do you know what that means?” Terad said. “Stop treating me like I’m your daughter!” Serenity said. “I can treat my tribemates however I want because I am the-”, Terad said, but before he could finish, his Giga ran off a cliff and Terad fell off, screaming. Serenity managed to stop her Giga at the edge of the cliff. Serenity looked down and shouted, “You shouldn’t pretend you own everyone in your tribe. And just move on! The Ravage is over!” Terad growled and stormed away.

Meanwhile, Sodden was storming across the swamp with his dino, eating every creature he wanted. He would eat up deinosuchuses, dilos, dimorphodons, and even search for the diplodcalus. He would rip off fins from dimetrodons, but before he could pursue a nearby diplodocus, someone leaped onto his Carcha. Sodden yelped and turned around. It was just Rod. “Oh, hey, buddy!” Sodden said. “Hey. What creature are you on?” Rod said. “Going to the redwoods for the diplo and dire bear,” Sodden said as he pointed his thumb in the other direction, towards the tall red trees. “Okay. Well… I’ll assist you on your journey.” Rod said. “Hold on. After this, I have to go for the dire wolf, which is in the Arctic. I have to wait for the others.” Sodden said. “What others? Wait a second…” Rod said. Then a Giga threw him off the Carcha and into the water. Then someone hopped off and stormed towards Rod. “Stay off of my territory and my kids!” Terad yelled. “WHOA!! No need to act up! Calm down! And what are you talking about? Is this about you “owning everyone and everything in my tribe?” Are you a dictator now?” Rod said. “You know very well what I’m talking about. Leave now before you get any funny ideas.” Terad growled. “What… funny…” Rod stammered. “Just shut up.” Terad said. “Wait a second. Is this about the whole “Ravage” thing? I think we may need to have a chat. Or a trial. I don’t know. I had nothing to do with the Ravage! I wasn’t even on Aberration!” Rod said. “STOP!” Terad yelled. Then he slapped Rod. Rod gasped and punched Terad. Then they started hitting each other. Sodden leaped down to stop the two. He pushed both of them away. Then Serenity ran towards the two. “Oh, god. Guys! Stop it!!” Serenity said. “No! Stay out of Rod’s sight! He’ll kill you!” Terad said. “I would never want to hurt anyone in your tribe!” Rod yelled. “Okay, then what about your little “raid” yesterday?” Terad asked. “I did not send in the Carchas!” Rod said. “GUYS!! Stop fighting! We have a lot of creatures to fight today!” Sodden said. “Oh, to hell with your stupid hunt. Go without us.” Terad growled. Sodden gasped and then growled. He got on his Carcha and ran away. Then in the distance, he yelled, “How do you like that? I just abandon you all? Huh?” Then he was out of render. Terad dropped Rod in the dirty water and climbed back on his Giga. Then he and the rest of the gang walked towards Far Peak. Well, except Serenity. She rode on her Giga towards the Redwoods. Terad yelled for her, but Serenity wouldn’t listen. After a few minutes, Serenity found Sodden’s Carcha eating up a dire bear and a dead diplodocus. She walked to Sodden, who was sitting on the Carcha. Sodden turned around to see Serenity coming, and he said, “What do you want?” Serenity sighed and said, “Why did you even talk about Rod? Terad hates him because of what he did in Aberration.” “Well… I don’t even know what the Ravage is or why Rod is so hated, but he seems like a good person now. Maybe he was forced to do it.” Sodden said. “Yeah, probably. I don’t remember much of what happened. I was unconscious the whole way home. I was asleep for at least a week. But what I do remember was that Rod was not alone. He was being controlled by someone else, who was the real tribemaster. I was able to see him for two seconds. Terad was not normal after that. The day I woke up, he wouldn’t stop talking about Rod. Sodden, what happened in the Ravage is unspeakable. It’s considered a crime across the Arks to speak a word about how the Ravage happened. But what I can tell you is that Rod seems innocent to me.” Serenity said. “Yeah. But what about Terad?” Sodden asked. “You cannot join his tribe. It’ll automatically establish your full connection to the Assassin Heart. You will end up like me, chained down, not able to escape.” Serenity said. Sodden nodded. “Okay. Will you be able to come to the Arctic with me?” Sodden asked. “I don’t think I can. Terad is probably going to be upset at you. He isn’t himself when he sees Rod. Every time he does, he gets into a fit and talks about how he hurt us. He acts like he owns us.” Serenity said. “Yeah. I get that. You can get back now.” Sodden said. He patted his Carcha on the head and it started walking in the other direction. Serenity turned away and went back to her base.

After over an hour, Sodden arrived at the Arctic, at the line between the volcano and the Giga mountain. Above the Carcha was a Pteranodon. It flew around him, and the sunlight met Sodden’s eyes. He looked around and saw a wolf pack feasting on a dead Mammoth. Sodden whistled for his Carcha to attack and it ran over and ate up the wolves. He then went to attack a small group of dodos. After the dodos, he went to find a doedicerus and found one on the Giga mountain. His Carcha put the dude down, but then saw someone at the top of the mountain. It was another Carcha, a female this time. Sodden used his spyglass to look at the level. Then suddenly, the Carcha got knocked off the hill. Sodden pulled his spyglass away andd ran over. The Carcha hit the ground and got knocked out. Then Sodden looked at the peak again and saw a Giga there. Someone was on it. “We need to go! Now!” The person yelled. “What?” Sodden said. “You’re right. Rod didn’t attack us. But someone is now!” The person yelled. Sodden ran to the Giga and saw Serenity on it. Sodden immediately ran down the mountain towards Far’s Peak.

The Dunkletousis Chapter will be the final chapter before the Giganotosaurus.

Get ready for Chapter 9…

This weekend…

-RelatingHen8906

Chapter 45: The Caves of Death: Part 2: Grotesque Grotto

Note: Story starts in Achatina, The Island ABC order for Section I, Scorched Earth and Aberration exclusives for Section II and has a Prologue. Last chapter in Lamprey, next chapter in Rock Drake.

Chapters to the end of Section II: 5! Chapter 50 will be called T X S

Cave Chapters: Aberration: Part 2/3

Later on Day 4 of Aberration…

Sodden and Dorack rode their ravagers east across the Green Zone, continuing through the Mushroom Forest. The sun’s light was slowly fading from the cave. The cave was quiet, and all that made noise were creatures walking along the grass, some hunting down prey, some running from predators, and the occasional Basilisk hiding in the ground. The two survivors continued to their base, and as they did, Dorack turned his head and looked to Sodden.

“Hey. So… when should we do the Grotto cave? You know, that cave in the Blue Zone?” Dorack said. Sodden sighed.

“We might just have to take a few days to get scuba and resources to be able to go. Gonna take some time to do. Uh, so when we get back to the base, we gotta get a Anky then some metal. We need a fabricator and whatnot…” Sodden said. Dorack nodded and looked forward The two kept going, getting closer to the base by the second.

Meanwhile, back in the Red Zone…

Marison stood in the giant, light blue chamber with the whirring strange machine in the center. The essence inside it was purple-pink, meaning it was critically damaged, and slowly turning gold, meaning it was dying out. Marison smiled at the sight.

“Heh. And Dorack seriously thought he could find her. Noob. Hmm.” Marison chuckled. He looked around the place, then, as he began to walk to the door, he got a notification on his implant. Marison looked down at it and saw that he got a message from Rod. Rod had set up a base in the Blue Zone and was advancing nicely. He also noticed the Rock Drakes from the Aberration Kingdom marching through the blue zone and towards the Green Zone. Marison chuckled.

“These idiot Drakes have no idea what’s waiting for them at the Green Zone…” Marison sneered. He walked out of the room.

~~~~

Dread crouched down near Serenity, who was sitting against the wall, shaking and breathing heavily. Dread gripped the club with his right hand and sighed.

“The Aberration Kingdom is trying to find your little friends. We have a plan for them. We cannot let Sodden and Dorack see any of these guys. Hopefully they’re still in that cave, getting decimated and all that.” Dread sneered. He then growled quietly and sighed.

“Listen up. When Terad came down here, I already hated him. I so badly wanted to get control of the Assassin Heart. Thought they’d just let me have it. They clearly did not understand how powerful we were. Not once did they back down, even when I kidnapped you, when I kidnapped him, and when I… well.. You know. Both our tribes suffered grand losses. Many creatures died, some survivors died permanently. Heh. It’s funny, you know. You came back to your worst nightmare all because Sodden wanted to kill a bunch of creatures.” Dread chuckled. Serenity sighed and shook her head.

“I came here to find our way to the Assassin Heart. So we could destroy it and free the C Tribe and myself.” Serenity said. Dread then spat loudly and cackled loudly.

“Yeah, sounds like a great plan. Just sneak into Dead Earth, find the heart and destroy it. Easy, right!? Heh. There’s just one little, tiny issue with that plan. It’s impossible. These artifacts host the power of the Creator. He wanted to share his powers with the survivors to allow them to do what they want. You can’t just go up and destroy it. Besides, even if you could get the resources to go down there and destroy it, the chances of surviving all the waves including the destruction are about as good as anyone getting out of this Ark alive. You know what that is? Around zero percent. Yeah. Yeah. Uh… like the odds of all of your friends, including you, getting out of this Ark alive.” Dread chuckled. He then started growling deeply as he picked the club up and stood up tall, looking down at Serenity. Serenity gasped.

“Hmm. Not sure what makes you think you can get out of this Ark alive, let alone destroy such a artifact. Anyway… guess you don’t wanna talk with Sylveevee about this whole situation. Yeah, just… just sit there and cower in a hole like the chicken you always have been.” Dread chuckled. Serenity gasped and stood up.

“Wait… you did what?” Serenity said, her voice shaking.

“Well… we caught Queen Syl, brought her here, and injured her so she couldn’t morph into a creature and leave. Don’t worry, she’s fine. Just on the first floor of the base. But you are going to stay near me and follow my orders. You know what happens if you don’t.” Dread growled. Serenity nodded and Dread then walked upstairs, and Serenity followed him. Both survivors walked towards the staircase to the main floor of the base, right above the dungeons.

~~~~~~

Dorack and Sodden were on Reaper, traveling towards the Blue Zone. Both survivors had metal pickaxes, grapples, crossbows, and many, many tranq arrows. The two were planning to go on a resource grind and a taming spree. They were approaching the southeastern corner of the Green Zone, and they were scouting the area for any good creatures to tame. As they approached the cliffside separating the green zone from the blue zone, Sodden, who sat at the front, took out a spyglass from his bag and held it up to his eye, to look around the area for something to tame. There were a few Ankys nearby, but all of them were low levels. Sodden put the spyglass down and sighed. They kept going down the path. Sodden then turned to Dorack.

“So I heard you nearly got Reaper killed the other day. I also saw one death message indicating that something happened while you were away. What happened?” Sodden asked. Dorack sighed.

“Well, I was lost in the blue zone at the time, and then I heard Reaper’s howling, so I went to her, then Marison and this other guy came up and injured us badly. We nearly killed Marison, but he managed to escape. His friend wasn’t as lucky.” Dorack sighed. Sodden gasped and sighed.

“Why did you not tell me this sooner? Okay… just say exactly what happened while you were in the Blue Zone. What happened to Serenity?” Sodden asked. Dorack looked around the area.

“Well… Marison and his buddy kidnapped Serenity and knocked me out so I couldn’t follow her back to Dread’s base. Like… come on. It’s not like we’re gonna be able to raid the base anyway.” Dorack said.

“Yeah. Maybe this is related to the Aberration Kingdom. Like… maybe it was to prevent us from finding them then raiding them with the help of the Aberration Kingdom.” Sodden said.

“Oh… so you believe me now?” Dorack asked. Sodden nodded.

“Yeah… well, apparently, Serenity was allowed to contact me with the implant and we had a little chat. There’s a lot of complex stuff going down here. I’m still not totally sure exactly why or what’s going on, but what I do know is that there’s something bad going on and we’re part of it.” Sodden explained. Dorack nodded slowly.

“Okay… okay. Did… did she say what happened to Nal?” Dorack asked. Sodden shook his head.

“No. She said she couldn’t give any specific details about the plan. But she did say she had around 12 days to live before her essence is gone for good. Not sure what’s happening with that.” Sodden said. Dorack nodded slowly in affirmation.

“Interesting… okay. Uh… you find any good Ankys?” Dorack asked. Sodden held up the spyglass and looked through it. He looked at a group of three Ankys. One of them was a 115. Sodden gasped and put the spyglass in his bag.

“There’s a 115 to the northeast. Let’s go.” Sodden said. Reaper growled softly and began running northeast to the slope where they saw the Anky. It was in a bright blue bush, eating some berries off of it. There were mushrooms scattered around the place and the plants were glowing brightly with blue-greenish colors.

“Okay. Dorack, you can tame the Anky, since you have the trap. I’ll get the metal.” Sodden said. Dorack nodded, then they both hopped off Reaper. Sodden turned back to the raptor.

“I’m going to need the cryopod to transport that Anky, so you’re gonna need to keep a eye out for anything here.” Sodden said. Reaper screeched in affirmation.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Two large doors burst open. Dread had just kicked them open, as Serenity stood tall, walking beside him. They walked into a large hall, with a staircase on the two sides of the room and a narrow hallway in the center, that led to a large gate on the far end of the base. Then in the center of the room, in front of the narrow hall, was a large table, with two curved sides and a parallel pair of sides on the front and back. There were chairs scattered around, the table was not very wide, but sitting on the other end was Queen Syl, bruised on her shoulders and chest, messed up hair, and two other people holding her down to the chair. The two survivors were keeping Syl down to the chair and stopping her from escaping. Serenity walked towards one of the chairs that sat directly across Syl. Dread stared at Serenity.

“Well, go sit down.” Dread said. Serenity nodded and sat down in the chair. Syl looked up at her.

“Ah, so we meet. Been waiting a while for this, you know. I wanted to meet you in a different fashion, but eh, it’s fine. We have bigger problems now. Until a few days ago, we had no problems with Dread and his tribe. Which is good. But when you got here and one of your friends died super violently somehow, I suspected something was up. Serenity, one of my friends remembers you from the last time you were here, over a year ago.” Sylveevee said. Serenity sighed.

“Yes. I met them one time. They were cool. I bet they told you about everything that happened.” Serenity said. Syl shook her head.

“Oh, no. He didn’t need to tell me. I already knew. Then I heard of Rod’s messages and learned about you and your friends. I wanted to protect them, but… It’s too risky.” Sylveevee said shakily. Dread chuckled.

“Yeah, you think I didn’t know that? I-” Dread said, then he was interrupted by a sound. His implant made a ding, and there was a message from one of the Rock Drake hunters. Dread growled quietly.

“Gimme a sec.” Dread said as he turned around and lifted his arm to see the message. He gasped when he saw what it read. He turned on voice communication just then.

“Stay out of sight. Do not let them see you. If you see Syl’s army approaching, attack immediately.” Dread growled. He turned off the voice, sent the message, then put his arm down and turned back around. He chuckled and growled.

“Looks like we have a bit of a… predicament. My army has discovered you-know-who in the Blue Zone right now. Syl’s army is approaching fast. Hmm… Queen Syl… recall your army. That way, you won’t have to lose any of your troops.” Dread sneered. Syl gasped and stood up, pushing the two survivors behind her away.

“One, it’s Highness to you. I guess you hate royality, huh? And two, I’m not giving up my army. We will fight, no matter what it takes.” Syl yelled. Dread growled and stormed over to her then grabbed her neck. Syl gasped in pain as Dread held her down to the chair. Serenity gasped and stood up.

“Serenity, you have anything to say about this crap?” Dread growled deeply. Serenity stammered.

“Uh… well, where did you find the army?” Serenity said. Dread chuckled.

“Why do you care?” Dread growled as he gripped tighter on Syl’s neck, causing her to start choking.

“Listen! I saw where the army was going. If Sodden and Dorack are nearby, they’re quite close to the Hidden Grotto. I…” Serenity stammered. She then looked around and whispered something.

“I’m sorry, Sodden and Dorack. I love you two.” Serenity said under her voice, then she looked back up at Dorack.

“Lead them to the cave entrance. That’ll lure them away.” Serenity said. Dread chuckled.

“Ah, yes. Good.” Dread sneered. He released Sylveevee’s neck then threw her onto the table. She shouted in pain as she sat up, groaning.

“Serenity, stay here. Watch her and do not let her heal. And one more thing. If I find you anywhere else… well, you know what happens.” Dread sneered. Serenity nodded. Dread turned away and walked through some doors on the right side of the room. The second the doors closed, Serenity looked at the table , flipped a chair over, and took a bag out from under it. The bag had multiple medical brews. Serenity chuckled.

“I think he forgot how smart I am. I know how to outsmart you, Dread. I’m not scared of you.” Serenity said. She took out some medical brews and turned to Syl. Serenity then held two of the brews to Syl’s mouth, and she gulped the liquid down. As she did, her bruises slowly dissolved and her energy was slowly regained. Syl sat up and looked at Serenity.

“Wha… do you know how risky-” Syl said, but Serenity interrupted.

“You need to morph into a Rock Drake and escape this place. Find Sodden and Dorack and protect them. Do not let Dread’s army stop them.” Serenity whispered. Syl nodded and looked around the place. She stood up then looked up at the thick stone ceiling, which had metal right above it. She then yelled and her body started glowing pink, magenta-ish, then her arms and legs began to extend and feathers grew from them. Her neck extended and her head began to morph into one similar to that of a Rock Drake. Her tail formed and her arms had become the wings. Serenity nodded. Syl growled quietly as she lifted off the ground right as Dread burst into the room.

“What’s going- oh.” Dread growled. He was silent.

“GET THE DEFENSES. DO NOT LET HER LEAVE.” Dread snarled. Syl then broke through the ceilings, shattering the top metal wall and exposing the middle layer to radiation. The insulated base would protect everyone inside from radiation. As soon as Syl left the base, the towers surrounding each corner of the base walls lit up with survivors holding crossbows. The guards continued to shoot at Syl as she glided away, dodging all the arrows. Then some Rock Drakes guarding the front gates saw Syl leaving and they took off to chase her down. Dread stormed over to the front walls.

“Seal the ceiling now! Serenity, get back to your cell. I’ll handle you later.” Dread growled. Serenity gasped and ran in the other direction, towards the staircase going down to the dungeons.

~~~~~~~~

Sodden and Dorack sat near the unconscious Anky, feeding it berries and keeping watch. Reaper kept watching the area. Then as she was sniffing the place, she smelled something strange. She chittered and growled softly then started sniffing as she followed the trail down south. Sodden looked up to see Reaper walking away.

“Bro… where’re you going? Did you find something?” Sodden asked. Reaper sniffed and looked around the place, then she noticed something walking towards her from a distance. She then screeched loudly and ran straight at Sodden and Dorack, then she grabbed their arms and threw them both on their back. Sodden yelped and grabbed the saddle, and so did Dorack. Reaper roared and ran straight from the Anky.

“Bro… what… what happened!? What did you see?” Sodden asked. Dorack turned around and gasped.

“Uh… dude… I think I know what’s going on…” Dorack said as he pointed to behind him. Sodden turned around and gasped. There were 10 rock drakes running at them, and there were two survivors on each one, shooting arrows and bullets at the survivors. Sodden gasped.

“Crap. We need to find somewhere to hide!” Sodden yelled. Then, as the Rock Drakes approached, another one showed up in the sky, gliding straight at the survivors. But this one was unusual. It had a fully magenta body, with slightly bruised wings and a bright red tail. Then it swooped down and grabbed Reaper and the two survivors and swooped straight east, speeding towards a giant lake.

“What!? What the heck… who is this?” Sodden yelled, gripping Reaper’s saddle tight. The Rock Drake roared loudly. Dorack gasped as he stared at the rock drake. It was completely pink-magenta colored, and the feathers felt more like human hair.

“This… this is her. This is her. This is Queen Sylveevee right here!” Dorack yelled. Sodden sighed.

‘’Can we not right now?” Sodden groaned.

“No. He’s right. I am Queen Sylveevee. I just escaped from Dread’s base. His army is hunting us down. We’re going into the hidden grotto. Hold your breath, we’ll talk later.” Syl said. Sodden nodded then him and Dorack iinhaled some air and held it in as Syl dove into the water, going straight down a large, deep hole that led into a cave system. They flew straight through the entrance, then Syl started glowing as her body shrunk. Her tail then became more flattened and her body became slimy. She then became a diplocaulus. Sodden and Dorack gasped and jumped on her back, then held the air pockets to their mouths as the diplocaulus swam past multiple cnidarias and eels.

Meanwhile, on the surface, the rock drakes were put into cryopods by the survivors.

“We need to go down there now. Kill them all.” One of the survivors said. The others nodded in agreement and two of them walked to the shore of the lake and took a cryopod out of their bags. They threw out a Bary, then the two survivors got on it and dove down, wearing scuba armor, to find their targets.

Meanwhile, deep in the cave, Reaper, Sodden, Dorack, and Syl all arrived at the surface chamber of the cave. Reaper screeched loudly as she inhaled the oxygen in the room again and again, and Syl then leaped forward, Sodden and Dorack jumping off, then Syl glowed and she became taller and her tail disappeared, and her normal human form returned. Sodden was shocked and confused. Dorack was speechless and confused.

“Okay… you might be asking what the heck is going on. So… basically, I had no part in all this until Dread invaded my base and took me away. I was forced to get my hazard suit to protect from the radiation and then we got to Dread’s base. They badly injured me so I couldn’t morph into a creature. Then Serenity was brought upstairs to talk with me.” Syl said. Sodden gasped.

“Oh… how’s she doing?” Sodden said. Syl sighed.

“She’s badly bruised and bloodied on her entire body. Looks like Dread gave her quite a beating. She had tears in her eyes as she was walking with Dread. But she was determined to protect you two, so she healed me and I was able to escape. We’re not safe for long, though. They’re definitely coming down here to kill us.” Syl explained. Sodden nodded slowly. He then turned away and sighed. Reaper growled softly and walked to Sodden. She whimpered as she moved her head onto his shoulder. Sodden sighed and petted her softly. Syl walked over to Sodden.

“So you must be Sodden. I heard of you when you came to Scorched Earth. Quite a tough mission you’re pursuing here, but it’ll be worth it. Anyway… uh… who’s the raptor?” Syl asked. Sodden turned back around to Sylveevee.

“This is Reaper the Raptor. She has a creature implant, something very rare for us survivors.” Sodden said. Syl gasped as she noticed the glowing speck on Reaper’s big red claw.

“I’ve seen many creatures with implants down here. Many of their implants dissolve within hours, though. Some persist for days or even weeks. It’s rare for one to last forever, as it only happens if you tame a creature with a implant then get a baby from that creature. If the baby has the implant, then the tame will keep the implant forever until it dies. So you don’t see these often in your Ark… right?” Sylveevee said.

“No, we don’t If I had to guess, the reason so many creature implants occur here is because of mixes with survivor implants and radiation. It may cause the implant to have different host data, so it’d be put on a creature of some sort. Because of its radiation, though, it dissolves quickly. Unless it’s put on a imprinted creature. Like Reaper. That’s why she’s had it for so long.” Sodden said. Syl nodded.

“Makes sense. Uh, I don’t know much about this whole plan or what Dread wants to do, but I know that you two are in danger and we need to leave the place fast. Okay, we need to go.” Sylveevee said. Sodden and Dorack nodded. Sodden took a cryopod out of his bag and put Reaper in it, then Sylveevee walked to the other side of the chamber, to the underwater passage. Sodden and Dorack walked closer to her, then Syl began to glow magenta-pinkish. A bright red hue surrounded her body as she began to shrink, her body becoming more slimy. Her legs and arms flattened and her tailbone extended from her rump and became long and flat. Her head became flat and some openings appeared in the sides of her body. She them stood on four legs, as a Diplocaulus. Sodden and Dorack hopped on and the group shot down into the passage, the two survivors holding the air pockets on the sides to their mouths, and they continued through the tunnel of deadly creatures.

After some time of manuvering through the cave, dodging creatures, and speeding through cave tunnels, they arrived to a bright blue room full of water, where there were multiple cnidarias around. There was a small, bright blue container on the bottom of the room. The container had a small, light green beam of light going through it. Syl swam down to the container, and Sodden then got off, holding the air pockets, and mumbled as he pushed the lid off, groaning. He quickly got the artifact of the Shadows and got back on the Diplocaulus. Then they dashed away as the cnidarias closed in. However, something was waiting for them back up at the surface chamber…

As they rose to the surface, a loud sound went off and a bullet flew straight into the Diplo’s body, and she immediately threw Sodden and Dorack off and morphed back into her human form. She collapsed to the ground, groaning as she clutched her chest. There were two survivors standing right in front of the group, and they had some Megalosauruses with them. Then someone came from behind the creatures. He had a thick, black and gold armor, made of metal and element, and he was wearing a helmet with bloodied horns on the top. Then the survivor stormed over to Sodden and Dorack. Sodden gasped and stood up in front of him. Then he took his helmet off and put it down on the ground.

“So… we finally meet.” The person growled. Sodden gasped.

“You’re… you’re him. You’re Dread. I know you. What… what are you doing here and what have you done with-” Sodden said in a rising voice, then Dread interrupted by punching Sodden in the shoulder and then picking him up, and throwing him aside. Sodden slammed into the ground, and got up slowly, groaning in pain.

“I want none of your business. Did you really think you were going to be able to escape this cave alive? Ha! I came over here on my Rock Drake to talk with you personally. Heh. Y’all are idiots. Sodden… yes. I know you. Rejected by Nudon on day one. You can’t run from Terad forever, you know that. Dorack… ah, yes. He’d do anything to save Nal…” Dread growled as he walked towards Dorack, who gasped as he stood up and looked at him, shaking a bit.

“You are ignoring what Rod gave you. What he told you. Just… hmm. I’ll give you back Nal. I’ll give her back in her full form and essence, and she’ll be left unharmed. I just need you to do this one thing.” Dread sneered. He took out a shotgun, which had red-black streaks across it and orange-cyan colored bullet chambers. Its trigger was painted yellow, and its handle was painted entirely red. Dorack gasped as Dread held the shotgun out. Dorack took the shotgun from his hands.

“Just shoot Sodden and Syl down. Do it. And Nal is yours.” Dread sneered. Dorack gasped in horror and stared at Sodden, who was sitting on the ground, groaning from bruises on his back, and Syl, who wrapped a bandage on her chest to heal herself. The two looked up and gasped as Dorack looked around with the shotgun. Dorack was gasping quietly as he tried to find a way to get out of this.

“Do it… and your girlfriend is yours…” Dread whispered. Dorack struggled to keep all his anger inside. He may’ve looked stressed and chill on the outside, but he was boiling as hot as lava with rage inside of him. Dorack continued to gasp, and he started growling quietly. Dread growled deeply and spat on the ground next to him.

“Well? You gonna save your girlfriend or what?” Dread sneered. Dorack knew what was happening. Dread assumed Dorack was stupid because of his brain injury. He assumed Dorack wouldn’t care about Sodden. Dread thought that Sodden was merely an acquaintance. Dread didn’t understand that Sodden is the whole reason that Nudon got the courage to hunt down the Assassin Heart. Dorack then whistled quietly. He started whistling a quiet howl, a sound that sounded like a raptor’s call. Then Sodden’s bag shook. A cryopod fell out of it. Then Reaper rose from the cryopod.

“Distract him. I’ll cryopod you as fast as possible. Syl… morph into a Rock Drake. Now.” Dorack whispered. Syl and Reaper nodded softly. Then Reaper lunged far and forward, then grabbed Dread’s head with her claws, and he shouted in pain. Dread yelled in anger as Reaper distracted him. Reaper pinned down his shoulders as Dread grabbed her neck and tried to push her off. Reaper’s claws were strong, but Dread was even stronger. Reaper got pushed away then she lunged again, this time she bit straight into the armor and starting ripping off pieces of it. The other two of Dread’s tribemates got on their Megalosauruses and ran straight at Reaper, and Syl stood up and began glowing magenta. She dove into the water as she did and she transformed into a megalodon. It roared loudly as it began to glow again, this time rising out of the water and becoming a Rock Drake. Reaper got shoved off Dread by the Megalosauruses, but Dread’s armor was badly damaged and he was mildly bruised. A Megalosaur then ran straight at Reaper, who was groaning as she stood up, and opened its mouth and grabbed Reaper by the body. Reaper screeched loudly as she was plummeted down into the water. Then Dread growled as he stood up and yelled as he ran at Dorack, who held Dread’s shotgun. Dorack fired the gun, and jumped to the other side as soon as he pulled the trigger. The bullets cracked his armor and did even more damage to his armor. Dorack then saw the Megalosaur and its rider continue to bash Reaper, chewing through her flesh. Blood spread across the water. Reaper growled softly as she began to suffocate. Dorack gasped and dove straight in, then he used the shotgun to bash down the Megalosaur and its rider, then after the rider andd creature died, Dorack grabbed Reaper and swam back up. Dread was lying on the ground, groaning, while the other survivor grabbed him and ran to his Megalosaur. He put it in a cryopod and threw a Baryonyx out.

“Bro.. where are you… going…” Dread groaned.

“We’re leaving. That raptor’s dead anyway. Just forget these idiots.” His tribemate sneered. He stared back at Syl, Dorack, and Sodden. Then he and Dread got on the Bary and dashed for the exit. They both swam upwards to the exit. Dorack took some gauze pads and pressed them down on Reaper’s body as he put Reaper on Syl’s back. Sodden got on too and the three dashed into the entrance, dashing out of the cave. As they rose, the army at the top started shooting arrows and rocks at Syl. Most of them missed as Syl glided away. Then a arrow with a strange purple tip flew through the air and struck Sylveevee in her rump. She screeched in pain as Dorack and Sodden held tightly on Reaper and Syl.

“I got her! I got her!” A survivor shouted as he jumped up and down. He saw the Baryonyx rise from the water. Dread had a scratch on his shoulder, but he was barely able to stand up. His implant flickered orange and green rapidly. Dread growled as he jumped off the Bary and saw Syl swerving through the air and glowing pink, then she began descending to the ground.

“Ugh. Whatever. With Sodden’s raptor and Sylveevee out of the way, we can finally do this. Army, get back to the base. We need to repair our armor and fix the damages. Besides… I have someone to talk to.” Dread growled deeply. The survivors standing around him nodded and they got on their Rock Drakes. The Bary was put into a cryopod and Dread got on one of the Rock Drakes. Then the Rock Drake army screeched as they took off. Syl’s army had long been called off because of Dread. Serenity was in danger of going to the Reaper Queen, Sodden and Dorack potentially exposed their location, and both the Queen of Aberration and Reaper were in critical condition.

~~~~~~~~~~

The magenta-colored Rock Drake rapidly fell to the ground, near the base. Sodden and Dorack screamed as they held onto the feathers and Reaper. Syl screeched in pain as she shrunk quickly, then they all struck the ground hard. The impact ejected a lot of dust and dirt and most of it flew across the place, towards the base. Sodden groaned as he stood up. He was moderately injured, and so was Dorack. Dorack grunted as he stood up, picking up Reaper, who was losing blood quite quickly. Sylveevee didn’t get up, though. Dorack set Reaper down on the ground, and started putting some gauze pads on her wounds. She had a open wound on her back, her tail was badly bruised, and her neck was bleeding a bit. Her legs were not in good shape either; there were cracked claws. Dorack wrapped Reaper’s body in a roll of gauze and put bandages on her legs. Sodden ran to Dorack and gasped.

“You have to put her to sleep. Okay? That way, we can help her without hurting her.” Sodden said. Dorack nodded and took some narcotics from his bag. Sodden turned around to Syl and ran to her. Sodden crouched down near her body and put his fingers on her chest.

“She still has a pulse. She seems to be unconscious.” Sodden said. Then he saw a arrow sticking out of her upper leg. Sodden then grabbed the arrow and slowly lifted it out. Then as he did, blood spurted out of Syl’s leg. Sodden took the arrow out and got some bandages from his bag, then pressed them down on Syl’s wound. Then he looked at the arrow and gasped in shock. The arrow was a poison arrow. Syl had gone unconscious from the poison. The poison was spreading through her body quickly. Sodden picked her up and walked into the base, and set her down on Nal’s bed.

“Oh… I wonder how Serenity’s doing…” Sodden said. He then put more bandages on her chest wounds and some of her bleeding bruises. Syl then started gasping quietly, then blood started pouring out of her mouth. Her breathing then stopped suddenly and she started making noises. Sodden gasped.

“Dorack, get in here now!” Sodden yelled.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Meanwhile, at the Rock Death base…

Dread stormed through the halls of the base. He had just arrived at the base and immediately burst through the gates. He then stormed down the staircase to the dungeons. He then walked down the hall to the other staircase, leading to the bottom cell. Dread then took out a long metal club that had small spikes on it. He burst open the door. Serenity was sitting in the far corner and saw Dread come in. Serenity gasped as she saw Dread coming.

“No…” Serenity gasped, her heart beginning to accelerate. Dread growled. Serenity whimpered and turned her head away, and Dread grabbed her neck. She screamed, trying to get out by hitting Dread’s hands. Dread then threw her across the room. She couldn’t stand because the impact broke her legs. Tears began appearing in her eyes.

At this same time, Dorack was trying to stitch up Reaper and Sodden was trying to stop Syl from choking on her poison.

Meanwhile, Serenity backed up against the wall, gasping quickly. Dread lifted the club and Serenity looked up at him.

“NO!!!” Serenity screamed as Dread brought the club down quickly. It struck her chest and everything went black.

To be continued…

-RelatingHen8906

Chapter 42: Grinding

Note: Story starts in Achatina, The Island ABC order for Section I, Scorched Earth Exclusives and Aberration Exclusives for Section II and has a Prologue. Last chapter in Glowbug, next chapter in Karkinos.

Chapters to the end of Section II: 8

Day 3 of Aberration…

Aberration, an Ark broken and shattered from the Ark’s history. The sun scorches the surface all day and sets all that walks the ground on fire. The sun began to rise on Day 3 of Aberration, its rays of light flooding across the barren surface, the dead trees, the dead rocks, and the large cave sitting below the surface. The sunlight flowed into the cracks, lighting up the green zone. The rays of light began to bring illumination into the underground. The light flooded across the land and into the windows of a small boxy wood hut two walls high and with no ceiling. There was a door in the front that led to a small balcony over the cliff. Sodden and Dorack lay in a bed, which sat to the west of the base, snoring quietly. Then Sodden’s bag, which sat just below Sodden’s bed, shook a little bit. Then something make a quiet hissing sound and some essence shimmered out of the bag, and something shot out of the bag. Reaper left her cryopod to look around the area. She noticed Sodden and Dorack sleeping on the bed, their eyes closed and sleeping peacefully. Reaper growled quietly and tilted her head in curiosity. She walked to Sodden and sniffed his chest. Reaper growled and moved his head towards Sodden’s shoulder, then began nudging Sodden’s shoulder with Reaper’s head. Sodden began to open his eyes as he groaned and looked to what was waking him up. He rubbed his eyes and sat up to see Reaper standing there, staring at Sodden.

“Oh, good morning, buddy. What do you want?” Sodden said. Reaper growled quietly and screeched as she opened her mouth and bit into Sodden’s bag, straining a bit as she lifted it up and dropped it on Sodden. Sodden looked down at the bag.

“Oh… uh… still don’t get it. You want to go out now?” Sodden asked. Reaper nodded. Sodden sighed and stood up from his bed.

“I don’t want to leave Dorack alone, not after what happened to Nal. We do need resources. I want to let him rest, though. He can finish the base himself. I trust him to keep the place safe and sturdy until I get back.” Sodden said. Reaper growled softly and tilted her head in confusion.

“We’re getting some supplies to make gas collectors so we can get hazard suits and get down to the red zone. I also want to tame some creatures and collect resources and kill some creatures too. Sound good?” Sodden asked. Reaper nodded and walked to Sodden, moving her head upwards on Sodden’s arm and walked around him. Sodden chuckled.

“Okay, you want to go now. Okay, just let me get my stuff.” Sodden said with a laugh. He walked towards his bag, then picked it up off the ground and put it on his back. Then he walked to a storage box across the base, which was still in construction, then Sodden took a shotgun and around 60 ammo out of the box. The shotgun belonged to Nal, and Sodden sighed softly.

“Where are you, Serenity?” Sodden whispered softly. He then put his supplies in his bag and walked to the door, then opened it and walked out. Reaper walked out afterwards, then Sodden hopped onto Reaper.

“Let’s find some red gems and get some creatures.” Sodden said. Reaper growled and roared as she began to run away from the base and towards the blue zone.

Later that day…

When the sun was well above the horizon, Dorack began to moan as he moved his head to the other side of the bed. He turned his body over, then he pulled his hand off the bed to find his bag. Dorack yawned and began to sit up, then picked his bag up and put it on the bed. He looked behind him, and saw that Sodden had left. His bag wasn’t there, and Sodden was nowhere in the base.

“Hmm. Where could he have gone? Ah, well. He probably wants me to be alone for some time.” Dorack said tiredly as he rubbed his eyes and began to stand up from his bed. He put his bag on his back then walked towards the back door, then looked around the place. He didn’t see Sodden anywhere outside the base. He walked away from the windows near the door then walked back to his bed and sat down on it. He sighed.

“Nudon probably already knows. I gotta talk to them.” Dorack said. He pressed a button on the bottom of his implant to start live talking, so that he could talk to the tribe in real time. He was contacting Codred, and soon, he picked up.

“Oh, hi, Dorack! How’s Aberration going?” Codred chuckled, sniffling once. Dorack sighed.

“Meh. Not the best. Good, if you put aside the fact that Drake Death is destroying me and Sodden and killed Nal permanently, yeah, it’s fine.” Dorack said. Then he heard yelling and smashing. Dorack gasped softly.

“What’s that?” Dorack asked. Codred looked behind him and said, “Oh, just Sal having another breakdown. He’s pretty distraught after what happened with his friend. How are you doing?”

Dorack growled. “Please, just leave me alone. Don’t tell Sodden about this or Drake Death will find out and we’ll die.” Dorack said. Codred looked down at his implant.

“Okay. Whatever you say.” Codred said quietly. Dorack clicked the button again to end the call and then collapsed on his bed. He lay his head on the pillow and covered his eyes with his hands.

“Dude… come on. Why does this have to happen? We’re fine the whole way through Scorched Earth and the Island, then the second we get to Aberration, everything that could go wrong did. Stupid Rod… how can I get Nal back, anyway. I still don’t understand how they did that to her.” Dorack said as he whimpered and covered himself with the blanket. He started sniffling.

“Why, dude? Just… why? Nal…” Dorack said quietly, tears beginning to roll down his face.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After a few hours, Sodden and Reaper had arrived to the path that led from the blue zone into the red zone. Sodden held a pickaxe in his left hand, and he took a deep breath as he was about to step across the border between the blue zone and red zone. There were crystals nearby, but the radiation would make it very hard to get. Sodden got off of Reaper, walked forward and looked at Reaper. He put his hand on Reaper’s head.

“You’ll need to stay here. If I die with you in there, you could die too. Stay here, okay? It’s too dangerous.” Sodden said. Reaper purred softly and nodded. Sodden sighed and turned around to face the red crystals on the left side of the path, around 60 meters from the radiation fog border where the blue zone was separated from the red zone. Sodden took a deep breath, held his breath, and dashed forward, right into the red zone. As soon as Sodden stepped into the red zone, his health began detoriating and his eyes began to hurt. Sodden ran to the red gems and began to mine as much as he could, bashing his pickaxe against the rocks with all his strength, while he was struggling to survive the radiation. He began to cough as his skin began to get bruised and red. Sodden was down to 91 HP out of 210, and he was done mining two of the rocks. He ran back to Reaper as he was about to fall below 60 HP. Sodden got out of the fog and grabbed Reaper’s saddle, fell on his knees, gasping, then put the red gems he got in his bag. He looked around, his vision was blurry, then Sodden got on Reaper to get back to base. Sodden turned Reaper around, gasping, then began to run back to the base. But as they did, something sat in the bushes, watching them.

“So… it’s Sodden himself. Drundo, we found him, I’ll report back.” Someone sneered, sitting in a bush that sat near a tree, which overlooked the path where Sodden just was. The other person nodded and walked the other direction. Drundo had a white mask on his face with a black robe. The other person was a red mask.

“They’ll pay for killing the other team. Find Dorack. Make sure he never gets to Nal. HAW, HAW, HAW!!!!!!!” The red mask guy cackled. Drundo turned around.

“Marison, shush. We don’t want him hearing us.” Drundo said. Marison growled. Marison walked with Drundo back down to the red zone.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

—--------BZZZZ

*click*

Nal only has two weeks to live…

If you want her back, you’re going to need to betray him…

—----------------------------------------------------

Sorry this was such a short chapter. And sorry this took so long to come out. I just couldn’t think of what to write.

Anyway, I promise the next chapters will come out very, very soon!

-RelatingHen8906

Chapter 40: Deep Suspicions

Note: Story starts in Achatina, The Island ABC order for Section I, Scorched Earth Exclusives and Aberration Exclusives for Section II and has a Prologue. Last chapter in Bulbdog, next chapter in Glowbug.

Chapters to the end of Section II: 10

Day 2 of Aberration…

6:39 AM…

The sun began to slowly rise above the horizon of the Ark, its light flooding across the land. The rays of light slowly entered the Aberration cave, lighting up the green zone. The rays flooded across the forest, then reached the small thatch hut that sat on top of a cliff far north of the mushroom forest. Nal groaned as she began to move her body. She was twitching a little bit. She then opened her eyes slowly, blinking quickly and looked up. She then rubbed her eyes and sat up. As she got up from her bed, she walked towards the door. Her implant was glowing dimly, and a purple light was shimmering in the center. Nal held her left wrist tightly, wincing.

“What the heck?” Nal asked. She looked closely at her implant. There seemed to be no damage, no injures, until she noticed a strange object lodged under her implant, piercing her skin. Nal put her right hand on it, and gripped the object. She tried to pull it out, but when she did, her implant flashed brightly and searing hot pain shot through Nal’s body. Nal screamed loudly in pain and let go of her implant. The implant glowed purple, and the object was still there, though slightly more deeper and causing blood to pour out of her wrist. Nal gasped and sat down, and Sodden got up, groaning.

“Something wrong, Nal? Why you up so early, anyway?” Sodden said. Nal sighed.

“I don’t know. I just felt something painful in my implant and it woke me up. I tried to get it out and I think it might’ve made it worse.” Nal said, gripping her implant tightly. Sodden walked to Nal and sat on the bed with her.

“What happened?” Sodden asked. Nal shrugged.

“No idea. It was completely fine yesterday.” Nal said.

“Well… I don’t know either. Hey, now that we’re up, why don’t we get levels?” Sodden said.

“You can go. Take my shotgun and armor.” Nal said.

“Okay, fine. Just be careful here, okay?” Sodden said. Nal nodded. Sodden then walked to Nal’s bag, which sat on the side of Nal’s bed, then took a set of flak armor and put it on, then Nal’s shotgun and around 120 ammo. Then Sodden took some cooked meat off the extinguished campfire near the door then walked out of the door. Nal sighed and looked down at her implant. The weirdly-shaped object was now red, and was a little longer. Nal wanted to get it out, but she was scared of what would happen if she did. Nal sighed and put her right hand on the object, then began to grip it hard. Nal took a deep breath and slowly began to pull the object. There was a clanking sound and her implant was humming loudly, Nal was gasping quickly, her heart beginning to accelerate. Nal continued to pull, as she shut her eyes closed, and she could feel terrible pain going through her veins. Her implant then flashed red as Nal began to get the object out, then she yanked it straight out of her wrist, causing her implant to shoot a beam of purple light straight up, which went right through the thatch ceiling and shot up all the way to the ceiling of the cave. A large blotch of blood showed up on Nal’s implant. Nal screamed loudly, her heart racing at an unhealthy rate. Rod looked up at the beam of light and smiled.

“Marison, phase one is complete. I’ll find some hazard suits, and we’ll begin phase two.” Rod said to his implant, then he sent the message. He grinned and chuckled.

“You made a big mistake bringing me, Sodden.” Rod said deeply.

Dorack’s eyes shot open as he noticed some weird humming. He then got up from his bag, walked out of his shack, and gasped loudly as he saw a large purple beam of light ascending to the surface of the Ark. Dorack’s jaw dropped.

“What the heck is that?” Dorack gasped. Reaper then walked out of the hut, then looked up and growled in curiosity.

“I don’t know what that-” Dorack said, then he got a notification on his implant. Dorack looked at it, and what he saw stopped him completely. Sodden was shooting down a Basilisk, and after killing it, he got a notification on his implant.

Rod got the notification too. He grinned. “Oh, yes. It is done. Time to go.” Rod said. He then walked from the shack he had built near a lake and walked down towards the blue zone.

The purple beam of light then faded away after a few minutes. Sodden ran fast, his feet pounding against the grass, as he continued to dash towards the shack. He got there a few minutes after the beam of light dissolved, then opened the door. There was nothing. Nal wasn’t there, and there was no significant damage. All there was was some blood on the ground. Sodden gasped and put his hand to his mouth.

“How… what… what’s going on? What happened?” Sodden gasped. He looked around the place. Nal’s bag was gone. “What? No. How… how can she have died permanently? Her implant was fine yesterday, for all I know. The radiation? No, it can’t be right. Where’s her corpse and stuff? What the heck?” Sodden whispered. He was in shock. So was Dorack. Something fishy was going on.

Dorack was on Reaper’s back, and Reaper was running towards where they saw the purple beam. Reaper’s feet pounded against the rocky ground, she dashed towards the mushroom forest. Dorack was speechless and in shock.

“How… how the heck? No. She was fine yesterday. I didn’t see who did it. No. She can’t be gone…” Dorack whispered.

~~~~

Bum. Bum. Bum.

Bum.

Serenity’s eyes shot open, and she looked up, gasping. Her hands were stuck to the wall by some metal. Her legs were too. Her neck was held back by a metal collar too. Serenity was gasping as she looked around. She seemed to be in some kind of prison. Then she heard some voices.

“Rod did it. Now Dorack and Sodden know Nal’s gone for good. This is going good.” One person said. Then the other person slapped him on the head.

“Shut up. Serenity could be awake.” The other guy growled. The person scoffed.

“Fine.” He growled. The two then walked away, their footsteps dissipating from the room. Serenity gasped as she looked around. “What?” Serenity gasped.

~~~~

Over two hours later, Sodden and Dorack sat in their hut, on Nal’s bed. They sat on the left side of the bed, next to each other, looking down.

“Wow. This was… an interesting turn of events.” Dorack said.

“Yeah. It’s… it’s just impossible to believe.” Sodden said. Dorack nodded.

“This can’t be true. It has to be a joke. I mean… how could she have died anyway? Her implant was fine yesterday, now it’s suddenly broken and it destroys Nal entirely in seconds? It sounds like someone did it to her.” Dorack said.

“Don’t be silly. We’d know if Rod did it and his tribe has not even come to any of us yet. They don’t know we’re here.” Sodden said. Dorack opened his mouth to say something, then they heard the door creak open.

“Hey, guys. Heard what happened. Sorry about Nal.” Rod said gloomily as he walked into the hut.

“Yeah. Oh… what happened to your shoulder?” Dorack asked, noticing a big bruise on his shoulder with blood coming out of it.

“Yeah, got attacked by a raptor. Broke my armor. I forgot to repair it back on Scorched Earth.” Rod said.

“Ooh. Sorry. Anyway, thanks. I’m just in shock right now.” Dorack said. Sodden nodded.

“Same. Well, I’ll go and get some more levels. I wanna do it alone this time. I want to clear my mind.” Sodden said as he got up from the bed.

“Wait. Why can’t I come?” Dorack asked. Sodden stopped just before the door and turned his head around.

“You look like you’re not in the mood to do anything. I’ll let you chill with Rod here. Okay?” Sodden said. Dorack nodded. Sodden turned back around to the door, opened the door, then walked out of the hut and closed the door. He walked towards the mushroom forest far from the cliff.

Dorack sighed and laid down on Nal’s bed, then looked up at the ceiling. Rod sat down next to him.

“So… today, I actually saw two people from the Drake Death tribe. They almost killed Reaper and I think they took Serenity too.” Dorack said. Rod looked at him.

“Hmm. Interesting.” Rod said. Dorack sat up.

“I thought you’d admit you sent them in to do it.” Dorack said. Rod glared at him, then lunged at him and put his hand on Dorack’s mouth, then holding him down. Dorack shouted as he tried to push Rod away. “Shut up. I have a entire wild Reaper Queen inside my base, and I’m not afraid to release it on Serenity. You will not expose me, or tell Sodden, or he will lose his girlfriend and you will lose your life just like Nal did. I don’t know how she died, but it probably was terrible. Would be a shame if you suffered the same fate she did.” Rod sneered. Dorack gasped.

“I will never betray my friend.” Dorack growled deeply.

“You will, or else you and Serenity die. And Sodden will be captured, shipped, and brainwashed. I believe you love Sodden so much you’d do anything to protect him. Anything, even keeping a dark secret.” Rod sneered. Dorack was speechless. He had no idea what to do. Nal was gone, Serenity was kidnapped, and now he’s being forced to hide something.

“No. I can’t… I don’t want Sodden to die. Neither Serenity. I’ve always wanted to fight the King Titan… and Sodden… no.” Dorack whispered.

“So…” Rod growled.

“I won’t tell him. I won’t. I swear I won’t. Just leave us alone. And do not call Serenity Sodden’s girlfriend. Oh, and one more thing. Stop talking about Nal. She did not deserve to die like that.” Dorack said. Rod sighed then got off of Dorack’s body, releasing him, then walked to the door. “You’re lucky. But not for long.” Rod growled. He then opened the door, walked out of the hut, slammed the door, and walked east. Dorack was panting. He put his head down. He started sniffling, tears appearing in his eyes.

“I… I can’t tell Sodden. If I do… everyone will die. I won’t. I must not.” Dorack whispered. He laid down on the bed, pulled the covers over his head, then closed his eyes.

~~~~

Somewhere in the mushroom forest, Sodden held his shotgun, shooting down dodos and stegos that came for him. Then he saw some weird roots sticking out of the ground. There were three of them, all were white. The middle one had some weird feathers on the top. Sodden walked closer, then the ground rumbled. Then the roots disappeared under the ground, then something shot up out of the hole. A Basilisk. It came out of the ground, roaring. Sodden ran past its head, shooting down its mouth. The Basilisk roared and ran towards Sodden, then the shotgun was destroying its head. The Basilisk screeched in pain. Then it lunged forward, and Sodden jumped out of the way, quickly reloaded his shotgun, then shot the Basilisk’s neck 4 times. The Basilisk then stopped moving and fell over. Sodden got three levels from it, so he was now Level 47. Sodden took a deep breath then kept walking through the forest. He reloaded his shotgun again and shot down some nearby creatures.

Rod continued walking through the spacious, lit up forests of the southeast green zone, and he looked around the area. He growled quietly. “I cannot have them on me. I must do something about this…” Rod growled deeply. He walked to a cliff, sat down near the edge, looking over edge at the blue zone far in the distance. He looked up, and began chuckling. It turned into a cackle in seconds.

“This is going good.” Rod sneered, grinning.

—------------

-..-

-RelatingHen8906

Chapter 30: Alpha Ambush

Now it’s really fixed

Note: Story starts in Achatina, The Island ABC for Section I and Scorched Earth and Aberration Exclusives for Section II, and has a Prologue. Last chapter in Lymantria, next chapter in Morellatops.

Chapters to the end of Segment II: 7

WARNING: Another bloody scene lies in this chapter. Again, proceed at your own risk!

Day 8 on Scorched Earth

A week had passed since the crazy first day on Scorched Earth. The survivors had upgraded their base. The base went from being a wooden box with a small porch to a expanded, stone circular base that had a box on the back, which had a gateway on the right side. The dino pen. There was a sloped roof on the pen and a tower-like roof on the main base. The base had a larger door, and inside was more rooms. To the left was a bedroom, with more beds and some preserving bins. To the right was the kitchen where there were now cooking pots. And next to it was the forge room, with around 20 forges and a smithy. Most of the group had gotten to Level 40. Soon, they could get better weapons. Rod had gone out to collect resources for a wall around the base. It was noon on the hot 8th day of Scorched Earth. Sodden, Serenity, Nal, and Dorack had bags filled with metal, stone, wood, and fiber. The four took out their piles of metal and placed them in some of the forges. As they started lighting the forges with metal, Dorack walked to the wall that had no forges.

“We should put a map up here. It’ll help us find caves easier.” Dorack said.

“Okay. That’s a good idea, we just gotta find the caves. Then we can mark them on the map for later.” Sodden said. Dorack nodded and walked out of the room. “Should we go hunt? I mean, we have good food, but what we don’t have is a good supply of soups and narcotics. We arre getting piles and piles of narcoberries but we don’t have a good amount of spoiled meat.” Nal suggested.

“That’s decent. We can find a carnivore to tame. I think a low level Rex should suffice for now.” Sodden said. Serenity walked up to him.

“We’ve been here a week and we’re making great progress.” Serenity said. She was about to say something else when they heard a dinosaur call. It sounded like a Parasaur. “What?” Dorack said. The four walked to the dino pen. They opened the door and walked into the pen, and saw the Parasaur just left of them calling and making a noise as it nodded its head up and down. “That noise normally means it detected an emeny nearby. Probably just a normal herbivore.” Dorack said. “Or it might be a carnivore. We gotta check.” Sodden added. The others nodded and walked into the base. They closed the door behind them, then Nal and Dorack took out a crossbow, pulled back the strings, inserted an arrow on it, then walked to the front door. They saw a weird red haze in one of the left wall windows. “Uh…” Dorack said. “Wait.” Sodden said, his eyes gaping. He squinted them closer to the haze. Nal put her hand on the door, and yanked it open. “Guys, NO! That’s-” Sodden shouted, but it was too late. An Alpha Raptor leaped and swung its claw, almost splitting Nal’s chest. Nal jumped back and screamed as she shut the door closed. It hit the claw, and the Raptor did not like it. Nal was gasping, her hand on her chest, as she walked to the pen. Everyone followed her. They opened the door, walked into the pen, and closed it. Then they heard a loud shattering noise. “What?!” Nal yelled, breathing hard. “The Alpha Raptor is here already!? An hour ago, it was almost a kilometer away from here!!” Sodden yelled. “You catch anything while the door was open?” Serenity asked Dorack.

“I did see a weird corpse. Very small. Had wings, though.” Dorack responded.

“Looks like it chased a high level microraptor all the way here. No other way it could’ve gotten here so fast.” Sodden said. “Guys! Level?” Dorack asked as he pointed to the window. “Right. That has to be a low level.” Sodden said. He whistled and Reaper walked from behind the Morellatops with a red spot. The red spot was about to expire, but there was another Morellatops with it and they were bred together, and the survivors were hatching a egg from them. Reaper growled as it walked to Sodden. Sodden stood up and got on Reaper, then walked to the gate, opened it, then walked through it and closed it. Sodden quietly went to a window, and saw the Alpha Raptor growling as it walked through the kitchen, sniffing the preserving bins, storage boxes, and cooking pots. Sodden reached into his bag and took out a spyglass. He looked through it, then immediately covered his mouth with his hand as he gasped quietly. “Oh, no. That’s just bad. That’s really bad.” Sodden said worryingly. He shook his head as he walked back into the dino pen. He walked into the pen, closed the gate again, then walked to his friends. “So… what is it?” Dorack said. Sodden was silent for a few seconds.

“We have a Level 150 Alpha Raptor inside of our own base.” Sodden said. Everyone gasped loudly and immediately ran to the window just next to the door. Serenity took her spyglass out and looked through the window with it. “He’s not joking.” Serenity said. “That’s terrible.” Dorack said. “The wolves would decimate a low level Alpha. Maybe… maybe the pack alpha left the wolves alone and thought they would come with him when he saw an Alpha Raptor. The wolves stayed, because they were distracted with Dorack and Nal, and forgot about the raptor. The wolves knew the raptor was a really high level, so they did not want to mess with it.” Sodden said. “Okay, well, then why did the Level 85 attack the Alpha Raptor?” Serenity asked. “Maybe… maybe it was just blind and forgot what the raptor’s level was. Somehow, the pack alpha saw the level of the raptor.” Sodden said. “Or maybe knew about it. I’m pretty sure wolves can sense the level of creatures. At Snowball, I used a wolf to detect the level of a yeti that broke into our base, since it was too dangerous to use my spyglass next to it. Really helped us.” Dorack said “I did not know that. How does it even…” Sodden said, shocked. “Not sure. We never really figured out why.” Dorack said. Then they heard deep growling and purring. Sodden, Dorack, and Nal walked closer to the door and put their ear against it. They could hear sniffing. “The raptor’s sniffing the door.” Sodden whispered. “We can’t outrun it with our raptors.” Serenity said. Sodden and Dorack walked to the gate, and Nal and Serenity followed. The creatures inside the pen looked down at the survivors. “Guys… there’s a max level Alpha Raptor in that base. We need to leave.” Sodden said. “But where are we gonna hide them?” Serenity said. Then they heard quiet screeching and scratching. “No idea, but we need to leave.” Sodden said. Then he whistled for all the creatures to follow. Sodden and Serenity got on Reaper, Nal and Dorack got on the low level, and all the creatures followed them out of the gate. Then the raptor started bashing its head against the door. The gate was closed, and just in time too. The raptor kept bashing his head against the door until it started cracking. The raptor stopped, then leaped at it and swung its front claws. They immediately shattered the door. The creatures could hear it. “GO!” Sodden yelled. The creatures were running from the raptor as it began to sniff the pen.

~~~~

Day 60 of ARKtic

33 days before Nal and Dorack’s escape

“The Near-Finality”

A dodo trilled as it walked along the rocky ground, the barren, cold lands of Snowball’s center. As it walked, it heard roaring. It screeched and walked away, then some wolves dashed right in front of it across the ground. The dodo was pushed back. Then another wolf came. Nal and Dorack were both on their wolf, being chased by a lone wolf.

“Oh, god.” Nal said, gasping. The wolf was running fast, and starting to slightly catch up. Nal and Dorack could see their cabin-like base in the distance, around 300 meters away.

“We’re almost there! We gotta keep it busy until we can find a way to kill it!” Dorack said. Nal nodded. The wild wolf chasing them was a Level 450, a max level on this Ark. Nal and Dorack were wearing ascendant flak armor, around 1200 on both chestpieces, and a total of 4500 armor. That was very good, and it also helped them stay warm against the cold. But the leggings they had were very terrible with its durability, so the wolf would easily crush the two survivors if they got caught off guard and without caution. When they were just meters from the door of the base, the two survivors led the wolf to a rock, and the wild wolf followed. Then the tamed wolf both survivors were on ran at the rock as the wolf was within biting range of the tamed wolf. Then it made a sharp turn inches from the rock and made a U-turn. They ran to the door. The 450 wolf hit the rock hard, and it backed up, dizzy and exhausted. Nal and Dorack were panting in exhaustion, so was the wolf. They put the tamed wolf in a cryopod, walked into their cabin and went up the stairs to the second floor. To the left was a large room with storage boxes and some armor stands, some with fur, some with flak, two were empty as it held the flak armor Nal and Dorack were wearing. There was also a curtain on the back of the room for changing into a new set of armor. “Okay. What now?” Nal said. “We need weapons.” Dorack said. Then they heard loud shattering, causing the two to yell out and turn around quickly. “Okay. Get the swords.” Dorack said. Nal nodded, and the two walked to a storage box sat between the two empty armor stands, opened it, and Nal took out two swords. She gave one to Dorack. “Let’s go.” Nal said. Dorack nodded and walked to the stairs, then as he was going down, something hit him hard in the head, causing him to lose consciousness almost instantly and fall down the stairs, unconscious. “Oh, no.” Nal said. She jumped behind the curtain, holding her sword to her chest, and covering her mouth as she stood against the corner of the wall, her back against the curtain. The wolf growled as it walked upstairs. It sniffed the ground. It growled softly as it walked to the empty armor stands. They stood against the wall opposite to the curtains. It then looked to there and sniffed around. Nal could feel her heart accelerating with fear. Nal was gasping softly but quickly. Dorack had a small scratch on his forehead, but the armor protected him mostly. He moved his head, groaning as he started to wake up. The wolf sniffed the curtains, then walked to the opening. Nal pointed the sword at the wolf as she turned her head away. She looked forward again as the wolf growled, staring at Nal deeply. It growled deeply and loudly, at this point snarling. “Oh, god. No… no, please…” Nal gasped. Her hands were shaking badly. Dorack walked up, his head hurting, then he heard a screech, then screaming. The wolf leaped to the side, knocked the sword out of Nal’s hand and bit her armor, then Nal screamed as she tried to throw it off, but the armor started getting cracked. The wolf’s claws were sinking deeply into the armor. Nal was knocked down, and the wolf pulled down her chestpiece and sunk his teeth deeply into Nal’s upper chest. Nal let out a gasp, blood spurted out of her chest, and her mouth filling up with blood. It was choking her. Nal couldn’t breathe. She could feel everything slipping away. Dorack ran quickly to the wolf and stabbed its neck with his sword. The wolf had a strong grip, though, and did not let go of Nal. Nal’s arms were getting cracked and bloodied, her body starting to slow. Her health was detoriating. Dorack kept stabbing the wolf until it finally detached its mouth from Nal’s chest. Blood was spilled on the ground, and also on the walls. Dorack then picked up the wolf. “You might’ve just cost me my best friend. You are the worst wolf in this universe.” Dorack growled. He threw the wolf across the room, picked up a barely breathing, severely injured Nal, then ran downstairs. The wolf was knocked out from the sword stabbing his neck and heart, and would soon perish. In that instant, Nal, who had some godly armor, deteriorated from 390 HP to 50 in literal seconds.

~~~~

Sodden led his creature group and his friends west, towards the mountains. Rod was on a Lymantria, flying down the mountain with supplies, when he noticed the group running. Rod gasped and flew towards them. “Guys!” Rod called out. Sodden looked around and looked up to see Rod coming. Then everyone stopped running and Rod came down to the ground. “What’s happening?” Rod asked nervously. “There’s a max level Alpha Raptor in our base.” Sodden said. Rod gasped. “Oh, no. How will we-” Rod asked, then Dorack interrupted.

“We are going to tame it.” Dorack said. Everyone gasped. “No, you can’t. We don’t have cataprime, remember?” Rod asked. “Normal meat still works, but it is a lot slower. But it seems like the only option.” Dorack said. Nal put her hand on Dorack’s shoulder.

“We could try. But we should be careful.” Nal said. “Okay. Let’s get down to something. These are normal Alphas, not modded ones. They will take a lot longer to tame. I’m pretty sure you gotta earn their loyalty or something.” Sodden said. “Yeah, it needs to think you’re worthy of such power. So it’ll let you fight it. If you get it down to 50% HP, it will get a green glow on its tail, that’s when you start feeding it. But to start the process, you need around 5 prime meat for a max level alpha raptor. But for normal meat it’s way worse. Four stacks, approximately.” Dorack said. Everyone gasped. “Well, better get hunting, shall we?” Sodden said. “Wait a second! How will we know it won’t just leap at our creatures the second it finds us?” Rod asked. Sodden turned to him.

“We will get into a trap and lure it that way. We will be able to get it easily that way.” He said. Rod nodded.

“I do have materials for a trough. I’ll find a place to get the trough down. You get the meat.” Rod said. Everyone nodded. “Good plan.” Dorack said. “I’ll stay with our creatures.” Sodden said. “No way you’re doing that alone.” Serenity said as she hopped off Reaper. Sodden got off too. He put his hand on Serenity’s shoulder. “Okay, then Dorack and Nal will get the meat. We’ll stay here.” Sodden said. Serenity nodded, smiling. “I like that idea.” Serenity said. “Well, what are you waiting for? Let’s go!” Rod yelled. He then took off on his moth and went to the base. Nal and Dorack got off their raptor, walked to the wolf they tamed recently, got on it, and set out south.

~~~~

20 seconds after attack…

Dorack, who held Nal in his hands, ran towards the bedroom, which had a bed at the back of the room, near a window, and a storage box next to it, and he set Nal down onto the bed. Nal was barely conscious and was very low on HP. There was a huge opening on her chest, which was from the wolf’s bite. There was a major amount of blood pouring out of that wound. Dorack ran to the storage box and opened it. He took out some gauze pads, two rolls of bandage, and walked to Nal. He put the gauze pads on the edges of the wound, then ripped a strip of bandages and pressed it down on the wound. She was not breathing well. She was down to 43 HP already. Dorack had to be fast, otherwise she would die and Dorack would be alone. Dorack was desperate to save his friend. The health was at 40 now. Detoriating at .14 HP per second, Dorack had to stop the bleeding now. The bandages were slowing it down well, but her throat was red, and looked swollen. Dorack looked into her mouth and saw a ton of blood inside. “Oh, my god.” Dorack said. The damage the wolf had caused was extreme. Nal’s arms were very badly damaged. Dorack wrapped bandages on the arms, ripped the strip from the rest of the roll, then walked to the other side. He took another long strip, ripped it from the roll, and wrapped it around Nal’s right arm. Nal started making terrible noises. Dorack gasped. She was losing health faster. Dorack immediately moved her into the recovery position and smacked her back with his hand five times. Nal was coughing blood out, and her chest was very broken. She was losing health slower now. But there was blood on the blanket now. Dorack pulled it away and took another from the storage box, and wrapped it around Nal. Dorack then lifted her up and she was sitting up, then Dorack moved his fist to Nal’s stomach, and softly pounded against it. Nal coughed all the blood out, and she wasn’t choking now. The main problem was the chest wound. Dorack lay her back down and took another gauze pad, then pressed it down softly on the center of her upper chest, where the wound’s center was. Then he noticed that Nal had stopped losing HP. She was on 32.4 HP now. But her health was not going up either. The bandage roll wouldn’t hold for long, either. Dorack had to find a way to stop the bleeding. “I swear to the Overseer I will kill myself if I need to tell Nudon- no. They’ll know already. They’ll see the death message of gold. It’ll crush everyone. Sal will be crushed to hear this. So will Red and Cendor and Denine and Paul and Tedan and Rick and so many other people.” Dorack muttered under his voice, worried and scared.

~~~~

Nal and Dorack ran across the desert, looking for creatures. After a few minutes, they saw a few Morellatops, a Paracer, and some direwolves roaring as they ran at the Paracer. Dorack and Nal nodded at each other and their wolf leaped at a Morellatops. The Morellatops roared as it tried to attack and throw off the attackers, but the wolf was biting hard and the pack was a low level too. The Morellatops soon collapsed from the wolf’s deep bite, then two others ran at the wolf. Nal and Dorack took out their crossbows and launched the arrows into the heads of the Morellatops. They screeched as their eyes collapsed and they stopped, and roared as they ran around, blinded. Nal and Dorack led their wolf onto the Morellatops and knocked it down, then sunk its teeth deep into the hump. The wolf ripped out a chunk of its skin, and the water camel stopped breathing after. The last Morellatops roared in fear as it ran away. The wolves attacking the Paracer were getting bloodied and very bruised, and were running out of energy. But so was the Paracer. Its legs were shaking a little. The wolves were walking slowly, and the Paracer roared as it stood over the wolves. It roared to stop them from attacking any more, and the wolves didn’t care and leaped one last time to attack the Paracer, then they bit its legs, causing it to roar in pain. Its front legs lost the ground for too long and it began to lose balance. The Paracer then roared as it kicked a back leg at a wolf, and it got hit in the head and it was thrown back, into a cactus, and it screeched weakly one last time before collapsing and going limp. There were still two wolves. Nal and Dorack readied some arrows, and launched them at the wolves. The Paracer then roared as it crashed into the ground, and the wolves were biting at the Paracer, ripping up its skin and neck. The arrows made contact with the wolves’ necks, and they choked as they fell over. Nal and Dorack high fived each other and walked to the Paracer. “Okay. Let’s do this.” Dorack said. “That should be at least 4 stacks worth of meat. Enough for the raptor.” Nal said. “I’ll let them know.” Dorack said. He looked at his left arm, pulled it closer to his eyes, then put his right hand on his implant and pressed a button on the bottom, a recorder you can use to send a message to tribemates. “We got a dead Paracer here. Bring the raptor here, okay? Be careful. This needs to work.” Dorack said to the implant. He pressed the button again, stopping the recording and sending the message.

Sodden was with Serenity, near their creatures, when they got a ding on their implants. They looked at them and saw a message. “Okay. Dorack and Nal got the bait. How will we lead the raptor there?” Sodden said. “Rod. Rod can fly his Lymantria. He can’t out-fly the raptor but he can stay above him to stop the raptor attacking.” Serenity suggested. “Perfect.” Sodden said. The two got on Reaper, they whistled for their creatures to follow, and the group started walking. Sodden looked at his implant, moved it closer to his eyes, pressed the button on it to start a message, and said, “Rod, can you lead the Alpha Raptor to Nal and Dorack’s position?” Then he sent the message and stopped the recording.

~~~~

8 hours after attack…

New moon. That was what covered Snowball the night of Day 60. A thick blanket of darkness lay on the Ark. Dorack had run out of fuel in his base, so it was dark in there except for the few standing torches he had. He had no gasoline to fuel a forge or fabricator. He held Nal’s bandaged hand, sitting next to her and holding some fresh bandages down on it. Dorack had used his implant essence to collect advanced status on a survivor, which includes blood amount, health amount down to the hundredths, and other things. Dorack was sitting there, panting nervously for 2 hours, until his implant beeped loudly, a red glow emitted from the ball inside. Dorack pressed it, and he got the status. But it was terrible. Nal was on 12.24 HP. She was losing health by the second, and the blood amount proved why. She only had 4 pints inside her body. She needed at least 6 to survive. Nal’s bandages were beginning to give out, and the wound was slightly stitched together but it wouldn’t hold for long. One second passed. 12.11. Another passed. 12.01. This was terrible. Dorack ran to the storage box on the other side of the room and opened it. He took out a syringe. He was gasping as he held it tightly. He softly pushed it deeply into his leg, and blood filled up the syringe. It held one pint at a time. Dorack had to do this one more time. Dorack took the syringe out and put a bandage on it, then got up and ran to Nal, who was on 10.07 HP. She was about to fall below 10 HP. Dorack inserted the syringe into her shoulder and it launched some blood into the body. 5 pints in. But the poorly stitch wound and bandages were breaking. 9.51 HP!! Dorack yelled as he took some bandages and gauze pads and held them down on the wound on her chest. The blood started slowing down a lot, but her heart was slowing down and not pumping blood well because of how little pints there were. 8.90 HP! Dorack put the syringe in his chest and blood flowed into it. He shouted in pain, then took out the syringe and pressed it into Nal’s left chest, inches from her heart. As he launched blood into Nal’s body, her health kept detoriating. 7.20 HP already! Dorack saw that the blood was not flowing fast enough, so he ran to the box and got out the defibrillator. It would help her a lot. But she was at 10 BPM and 5.91 HP now. Dorack’s hands shook. Seconds passed by, and he put the pads on Nal’s right and left chest. Then his hands were resting on the handles. 5.01 HP. “Clear!” Dorack yelled as he pulled the handles, sending shocks through Nal’s body. Her heart rate sped up for a second there, but slowed again. The defibrillator was heating a little, but Dorack did not care. He sent another shock, and it did good, but the wounds were opening. 3.67 HP!! Dorack took out the last group of gauze pads and a few rolls of bandages, ripped off a long strip of bandages, and pressed them down onto the chest after putting down the defibrillator. Her health was declining slower now. 3.10 HP! Seconds passed. 2.40. 1.99. 1.80. The shocks weren’t doing much. Dorack was sweating, panting in fear. He was on the brink of Nal’s finality. The verge of losing his best friend. Dorack picked up the defibrillator. “Please work… please… PLEASE…” Dorack gasped as he put the device on Nal’s chest. He turned up the shock. The HP was down to 1.02. 0.99. 0.90. Dorack pulled the handles and they sent a huge shock through Nal’s body. 0.60. 0.54. 0.50. 0.45. The massive shock shook her body hard, sent her heart rate up and made it pump the fresh blood through. The wound was stable again. Then suddenly… the decline stopped. The HP started increasing - exactly the result Dorack wanted. Dorack was gasping as he fell over. “Oh, my god. Thank god.” Dorack gasped in relief.

0.07 HP. That was where it stopped. If it wasn’t for that large heart rate surge, Nal would’ve died before the blood got a chance to flow properly. Dorack was speechless. He was relieved, however, Nal was still alive. 0.07 HP was the lowest HP amount any survivor got to and survived.

See the aftermath of Nal’s awakening at the end of the chapter!

~~~~

Sodden, Serenity, and their creature group had found Nal and Dorack after a few minutes. They had put up a stone gate near the Paracer. The stone gate was a box, that had a big opening where they would put up a gate and gateway when the raptor entered. There was also a window so the raptor could have air and get the Paracer corpse. As the group waited, they saw a notification on their implant. Rod was coming.

Rod flew on his moth above the raptor, who was roaring and jumping up. Rod flew the moth west as the raptor followed, trying to get the moth. But the moth was flying too high and the raptor couldn’t get it. Soon, the trap came into sight. Rod flew into it, the raptor roaring as it leaped at the moth. The moth dodged as it made a sharp turn, leaving the gate. Sodden placed down the gate, then when the raptor hit the wall on its head and slowed down, he also placed the gateway. The raptor roared in anger.

“Okay. DO IT!” Sodden yelled at the creatures. The creatures roared as they ran to the window, grabbing the raptor’s neck and claws. The raptor scratched at them, biting them and screeching. But the creatures overwhelmed it. And the minimal space the raptor had to attack was making it worse. Then Sodden ran around, and saw a green glow.

“Everyone stop!” Sodden yelled. The creatures let go of the raptor, roaring as it tried to get out the window. Sodden and the others ran to the Paracer corpse, and pulled its legs. They groaned as they pulled it to the raptor. The Alpha Raptor purred as it saw the Paracer. It licked its lips, and opened its mouth. Dorack noticed this.

“Guys, raptor wants the Paracer!” Dorack yelled.

“That’s what we want!” Sodden yelled. They pulled the Paracer to the front of the window, and then Sodden took out a metal hatchet. He then swung it hard at the window, shattering the bulletproof glass. The raptor purred as it looked out the window and started munching down on the paracer. “Perfect. Now we wait.” Sodden said. Nal gasped and walked closer to the raptor. She saw a paw hanging above it, with a weird ring forming around it. “I think that’s the taming process.” Nal said.

“It is.” Sodden said. After the raptor ate the whole Paracer, it was full and satisfied as it screeched and ran to the gate. The process meter was full, and the message, “You tamed an Alpha Raptor (Level 150)!” was shown. The group ran to the gateway and opened the doors. The raptor roared as it ran out, then walked around Sodden, purring. Dorack chuckled.

“I think it likes you.” Dorack said, smiling. Sodden rolled his eyes, happy. He petted the raptor. “Rod, you get any metal?” Sodden asked.

“Yeah. Got a decent amount. We’re gonna go smelt it now. Let’s do this. Grinding for victory!” Rod yelled. Everyone cheered in excitement. Then they led their creatures back east.

~~~~

16 hours after Attack

Day 61 of ARKtic

32 days before Nal and Dorack’s escape

The sun slowly rose above the horizon, its rays of light sweeping away the darkness. Inside the base, Dorack slept, lying with Nal on the bed, who had stitches on her wound and bandages on her arms. Dorack had his arm on her shoulder. Nal opened her eyes slowly, gasping softly. Dorack woke up just then.

“Oh… you’re finally up.” Dorack said, excited.

“I… I saw the Creator. I thought I was gonna die… but you saved me.” Nal said. Dorack chuckled. Nal turned her head to Dorack.

“I saved you, yes. Day 61 begins. Why don’t we blast our flares off, like we do on each morning to signal a new day on Snowball.” Dorack said. They both embraced each other. Dorack was just relieved and happy to have his best friend back.

—-----

…

You…

You’re nearly to Aberration segment…

I hope you’re prepared for what will happen then…

Will set the stage for Segment 4, 5, 6, 7…

And eventually, the finality of Journey Through All Creatures.

Prepare for Halfway… 6 chapters to go.

—-------

That was a paragraph hinting at the Aberration segment. Anyway, sorry about that bloody scene. If you don’t like them, I can scrap them.

Anyway, see you in 31, where we start the Cave Chapters of Scorched Earth!!

-RelatingHen8906

Chapter 15: Returning the God Shotgun

Note: Story starts in Achatina, The Island ABC order for Section I, and has a Prologue. Last chapter in Mammoth, next chapter in Microraptor.

Chapters to the end of Section I: 10

This is the second repost with the small errors fixed.

After around an hour, the pteranodon approached the volcano and Sodden whistled for him to land in the base. The pteranodon flew around the volcano and into the walls of the base. Sodden hopped off and ran into the main base. He opened the castle doors and saw Red walking around. Red noticed Sodden there and walked to him. “Sodden, we have a problem. Our god shotgun is missing.” Red said. “Yeah, I was thinking about that. We’ve seen what these Gigas can do, and both our armies are broken.” Sodden said. “True. So…” Red said. “Our armies can’t handle that. We gotta get some Rexes. I was just going to find another spot to tame them.” Sodden said. “Yeah. Well, we gotta be on watch in case Cordor decides to pay us a visit.” Red said. “Uh… the tribemaster?” Sodden asked. “Yeah. He’s brutal. We are, however, breeding up a Giga army. It’s not much, but it might help a bit.” Red said. “Oh, okay. I’ll help you set things up.” Sodden said. Red nodded and walked out the door, and Sodden followed him.

Red and the others walked down to the breeding barn. To the left of it was a large pen with some Gigas in the center and air conditioners near the gates separating the inside of the barn from the Giga pen. Red pointed to the spot. “That’s our Giga breeding pen.” He said. Sodden and Serenity walked towards the pen, along with Red. The three looked over the fences and Red whistled for a Giga to come. It was a small, dark red Giga with a white belly. “This is one of our first mutated Gigas. It’s a female, so once she grows up, we’re gonna breed a large mutated army.” Red said as he petted the Giga on the head. “Well, okay. How many Gigas do you have?” Sodden asked. “I’ve got around 18 grown Gigas, not including the mutated male. They do have good stats, though.” Red said. “Okay. Uh…” Sodden said. He started looking around the base and looked up at the volcano’s steep slope. “Well, you basically have a natural wall that they would have to go around up there.” Sodden said as he pointed to the slope. “So the ideal positioning for the Gigas would be to split them up with a lot of Rexes around the walls. It is a pretty big base. So I think groups of 8 Rexes, along with 2 Gigas, could be used to spread them across the outside of the walls. Hopefully, that slows them down.” “That sounds like a good idea. Now we just gotta keep our tribemaster out of sight.” Red said. Then Serenity walked over to him. “I think I have a plan.” She said. Sodden nodded and the three walked back to the main base.

When the three entered the castle, they ran up the stairs and towards Denine’s room. They opened the doors, and Denine looked behind her to see them. She got up and walked to them. “What’s he doing here?” Denine said. “We’re going to get your shotgun back. I think we have a plan.” Red said. “We’re going to spread the Giga and Rex armies across the wall so we can hold off Nameless for at least a few seconds. Hopefully, we can talk to them during that time.” Sodden said. “Dude… how will we get them to give back the shotgun?” Denine said. “I don’t know. But we gotta think of something. I am not leaving this base until that shotgun is back in the right hands.” Sodden said. Red started to smile, and walked towards the door. “Okay, guys. Let’s do this.” He said. Everyone nodded and walked out the door.

After a few hours, a group of Gigas, along with people on them and a large orange banner on the leading Giga’s head, approached the walls of Nudon to see groups of Rexes and Gigas in front of the walls. Sodden, Serenity, and Rod stood on the wall’s bridge, looking through a spyglass. Red noticed the group coming and sent a message to another guy in the tribe, who was sitting in the deep depths of the castle. He led Denine into a vault that Nameless could never find. They’d easily destroy the vault with the shotgun, so the vault was hidden securely. As Nameless approached the walls, the person on the lead Giga stopped his Giga and stood up. “So we meet again!” He yelled. Red looked down and said, “Give us back the shotgun.” “Oh… don’t worry. We’ll give it back… if you do one little thing for us. Let us go in, and destroy your little tribemaster and that fraud… what was his name again? Whatever. It’s yours after that.” Cordor said. “No. You’re not getting through.” Red said. “Not? These Gigas are level 309, and are 100% imprinted. We worked hard to get levels that high. Their melee is 397%. We can easily break through.” Cordor said. “Well…” Red said. “You believe you’re so powerful. You don’t even have good Rexes.” Cordor said. “We did have good Rexes! Level 278, 480% melee, 100% imprinted! Then you killed them!” Red said. “What? No. The Rexes killed a Giga. These things were too poweful. In fact, I almost lost my 104 levels because of them. So we just captured them in large cages, and threatened to knock them out if they tried to kill us again.” Cordor said. “These things are good.” Sodden whispered in Red’s ear. “Yeah, but how could we let them out?” Red asked. Sodden pointed to the cages on the cart that the Gigas were pulling. The cart held 9 cages. One of the Rexes were Cato, who was bloodied, 90% torpored, and hungry. “Wait. Is that… Cato!? What did you do to him!” Red yelled as he noticed the color-mutated Rex in the front cage. “Oh… you’re lucky we spared him.” Cordor sneered as he looked back at the cages. Sodden thought of a plan then held Red’s shoulder. “Hey. I think I have a plan. I gotta go down there and let the Rexes out. I can release my pteranodon to distract the Gigas, then use the last Carcha to destroy the cages. The Rexes will do the rest.” Sodden said. “Okay. Be careful.” Red said. Sodden nodded then threw out his pteranodon. He got on then flew down into the walls, then out the gate, so that Nameless didn’t see him leaving. “Okay, Red. I’m getting impatient. Let us in.” Cordor said. Red didn’t say anything. He whistled attack on the Gigas, then a crowd of Theris came from the bottom of the hills, along with the Rexes and Gigas on the walls, then started biting the Gigas. “What!? Gigas, destroy them!” Cordor yelled. The Gigas bit a Theri’s head off then threw the body at a Rex. The Rex got blinded by the blood and a Giga pushed it off the hill. Then a few Rexes charged at the Giga’s leg but another Giga grabbed one of the Rexes and sunk its teeth deep into its body. Then as the Gigas were fighting, the growling and roaring drowned out the sound of Sodden’s pteranodon flapping his wings, approaching the cages. The pteranodon landed behind a rock and Sodden hopped off. The Gigas were looking forward, fighting the Theris and Rexes, and Sodden crept to the cart with the caged Rexes. He climbed up then threw out his Carcha. He climbed on the Carcha and inserted his mouth in the gaps of the metal cages, then his mouth closed and the cages made a loud snap. But the noise was still drowned out by screeching. The Carcha broke 5 more cages before someone turned around to get on a Giga and noticed Sodden’s Carcha breaking the cage. “Hey! Cordor, we’ve got a intruder!” The person yelled. Cordor turned around and his Giga screeched and charged at the Carcha. Sodden whistled for the Rexes to attack, and they charged at the Giga. The Giga tried to bite a Rex running from the side, but the Rex dodged and bit the legs. The Giga screeched and tripped, causing Cordor to fall off. The Rexes held him down with their feet, but Cordor took out the shotgun. “You forget I have the most powerful shotgun in the universe.” Cordor said. He pulled the trigger six times, and the Rex fell from 30,000 health to 3,000 in seconds. His Giga got up and rammed the Rex in the butt, then bit its tail and threw it towards the wall. The Rex burst through the wall, his HP on a whopping 1.2%, and there was a hole in the wall. Cordor looked up and saw Sodden on his Carcha, who was frozen. “This is your last chance. Tell me now where she is, and give me back these Rexes… or it’s curtains for you and everyone in your tribe! And your little ally too!” Cordor yelled angrily, holding the reloaded shotgun and aiming it at the Carcha. His finger was ready to pull the trigger. Sodden tried to think of something. He had to do something or else bad things would happen. Then as he was thinking, the trigger got pulled and the Carcha screeched in great pain. He went from 18000 health to 13500. “You got three chances left, buddy.” Cordor sneered. Sodden looked around and saw the injured Theris, Rexes, and Gigas. Then, he looked up to see a Giga going through the hole in the wall. Then Sodden got jumped and almost fell when his Carcha let out another screech. The shotgun went off again and the Carcha’s health dropped to 9,000. “Two.” Cordor growled. Sodden gasped as he looked up to see the Giga coming out of the hole, and Serenity dangling from the mouth. “How does it feel to be the cause of this?” Cordor said. Sodden stammered, trying to let out a answer, then the trigger pulled again and the Carcha let out a huge screech. 4500 health left! “Once I shoot this shotgun again… your stupid Carcha that you put above everyone else… she’s going to be gone. Then you have nothing left. Then your stupid ally will be next.” Cordor said. Then Sodden gasped and thought of something. He quietly took a cryopod out of his bag. “This is it. Tell me now. Ten…” Cordor sneered. Sodden dropped the cryopod, and Reaper the raptor came out. “Nine…” Cordor said. Below the Carcha’s bleeding tail and behind the broken claws, Reaper sat, waiting to strike. “Eight, seven, six, five…” Cordor said. Then someone on one of the Gigas shot the Carcha, and his health went to 4,465. It wouldn’t heal enough to tank another of the 4500 damage the shotgun did. “Four… three…” Cordor sneered, his voice rising. Sodden stood up and whistled a Rex at the bottom of the hill to come. “Two…” Cordor growled. Sodden prepared to whistle his final blow and send a attack that would hopefully get the shotgun back. He whistled loudly and Reaper and the Rex prepared to jump. “One…” Cordor yelled. He was about to pull the trigger when Reaper jumped at his head and knocked the shotgun out of his hands. The Rex held him down. Cordor stabbed the Rex’s feet with a sword, and he was about to throw the sword in the belly when something pierced his armor, causing it all to fall off and Cordor’s health dropping to zero. He collapsed instantly. Sodden aimed the shotgun at the Giga holding Sodden’s friend. The Giga whimpered and dropped Serenity, then ran away. The people opened the remaining cages and all the other Rexes ran out of the cages and towards the walls. The other Gigas, along with Nameless’ people, started walking. “We must retreat. We’ll get our revenge later.” Someone sneered as their Giga disappeared behind the hills. Sodden let out a cheer of excitement and ran into the base walls. He looked around to see the damage. A lot of Rexes and Theris died, but most of the Rexes that were stolen were safe, but injured. Red ran down the stairs inside of the walls, and ran out the door near the hole. “Sodden, you are truly a great one. I shouldn’t have misjudged you.” Red said. Sodden nodded then whistled for all the creatures to come. One by one, they walked through the hole. When all the creatures were in, Serenity, Red, and Sodden were standing besides the remaining parts of the army. “Sodden, that was insane. We did lose a lot of tames, though. But at least we’re still here and that shotgun is back where it belongs.” Red said. Sodden held out his fist and Red fist bumped him. Serenity nodded and Sodden walked to his pteranodon. “Well… all is done. We’ll rebuild, and I’ve got some creatures to kill.” He said. The two nodded. Sodden got on his pteranodon and took off towards the snow.

Over the course of an hour, death messages showed up. “Sodden (Level 60) killed a Megalodon! Killed a Megatherium! Killed a Mesopitcheus!”

Okay, the next chapter won’t be as long.

See you in Chapter 16.

-RelatingHen8906