The Arks: Over Heaven (by Ben)

Chapter 66b: Dungeon

Original Post Date: Jun 1, 2024

Note: Story starts in Wyvern, Aerial ABC backwards filter and has a Prologue. Last chapter in Yeti, next chapter in Woolly Rhino.

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BAM BAM BAM!

Gary started off by using his pistol to shoot at some of the spiders that were getting closer to them. They instantly shriveled up and died, but there were still quite a bit more descending on them. This fight wouldn’t be as easy as they expected.

“Gary, don’t waste your ammo just yet,” Skyler said, “What if you run out and we encounter some bigger threat?”

“Right…” Gary muttered.

A spider screeched and jumped onto Rick, and with a scream he backed away. The spider fell to the floor, and began to get back up. It bared its fangs and then shot a web out of its mouth. The web hit Rick in the face, and he tried his best to claw away and get it off of him. Skyler rushed in and swung her nunchucks at the beast, and as it made contact the beast spit out some concentrate of venom and blood. It collapsed to the ground and died.

“How many more of them are there? We can’t just keep fighting on like this!” Rick cried, as he managed to take the web off of his face. As one of the spiders shot another web at him, Rick swung at it with his knife, cutting it in half and falling to the ground like a deflated balloon.

Gary’s eyes darted around the room, and his eyes lit up in fear.

“There’s around twenty or so.”

“That means each of us have to take on at least seven,” Skyler calculated. Gary shut his eyes and gripped his pistol even tighter. His hands began to shake.

“I can’t fight them head-on. Even if I had a melee weapon, I don’t know how to use them! It never made sense to me,” Gary shouted. He aimed his gun at another spider, but as Skyler shot a look at him he lowered it.

“Come on, we HAVE to do this for the others! Otherwise they’ll be trapped on this island forever, we need to adapt accordingly!” Skyler screamed at Gary. Gary stood as still as a rock though.

One of the spiders took its opportunity with Skyler distracted. It rushed up behind Skyler and sunk its fangs into her leg. She let out a gasp, and fell onto one knee. Rick turned around as soon as Skyler cried out and inserted the knife into its body.

SHINK!

Blood spurted out onto Rick’s hand, and he retracted the blade and rushed over to help Skyler. Skyler began to murmur to herself and mumble random gibberish, and sweat began to accumulate on her forehead.

“Are you okay Skyler? Skyler!” Rick cried. He looked over at Gary, who had his head in his hands, “Get yourself together Gary, please! You’re the only one here with an actual useful implant attribute!”

A spider rushed at Gary and jumped at him, but he swiftly dodged out of the way instinctively. Rick let out a scream of fury and kicked the spider that had attacked Skyler away from her as hard as he could. Rick lay Skyler onto the soft mossy earth, and looked up at the horde of spiders incoming. There were still about nineteen left.

“Fine.”

“I’ll do it myself then.”

Rick readied his knife, and flipped it around in his hands. One of the spiders began walking up to him from behind, and as the knife landed in his left hand he turned around and shanked the spider right in the eyes. Another came at him from his right and he kicked it with his shoe as hard as he could. The shoe ripped at the sole and fell off onto the ground.

Gary looked on, speechless, as Rick began to fend off the rest of the horde with relative ease. Spider after spider came after Rick, and scream after scream Rick would swipe his knife or use his fists or legs to fend them off and give Skyler some breathing room.

Skyler didn’t seem too well though. Her breathing was getting raggedy, and her face was getting paler. Gary looked back up at the roof to see the artifact just out of reach. It would be impossible to get to, no matter how athletic one was.

“That artifact… that artifact could help Skyler!” Gary realized. He got his pistol, aimed at the artifact, and then pulled the trigger.

BAM!

The artifact flickered, and surprisingly, it fell from midair! Gary dropped his pistol and grabbed it in his hands. It still had a green pulse, luckily. The bullet had not ruined it. Gary quickly rushed over to Skyler and placed it onto her hands.

“Come on Skyler, get up! We need you!” Gary begged her.

Rick let out a blood-curdling scream as he inserted his knife into another spider’s abdomen.

“Please.”

Skyler’s eyes flickered open, a silver daze in them. Her implant glowed, and the artifact began to glow in unison. The artifact disintegrated into a million metal pieces and flew into Skyler’s implant. Skyler’s implant glowed, and her eyes shot open.

With haste, Skyler shot up from the ground and grabbed the pair of nunchucks. The last spider of the wave was approaching Rick, who was on both of his knees, and his head hanging low. His adrenaline had finally faded. Skyler threw the nunchucks as hard as he could, and with great marksmanship, it hit the spider right in the eye. The spider screeched and slowly backed away, rubbing at its eyes with its eight legs. Skyler ran up and afterwards plummeted her fist into the spider. Then, she raised her leg up and kicked it into the soft earth.

POW!

Green blood gushed out onto her shoe, and as the spider attempted to get up again, she slammed her foot into the spider again. And then again, and again, and again, until finally the spider didn’t get up.

The dungeon doors reopened, allowing them to freely exit with their prize: the artifact.

Skyler took a moment to stare at the spider that lay dead on the ground. Then, she collapsed onto her side.

“Skyler!” Gary cried. He rushed over to her side and quickly checked her pulse. She was alive. Gary let out a sigh of relief, and her chest heaved up and down. Skyler was still breathing.

A groan came from Rick. Gary looked over at him. His blonde hair was duller and coated in green blood, and he too was bleeding. He had a gash on his right hand and blood trickled from his lip softly.

“Why? Why didn’t you help?” Rick asked hopelessly, “Why…?”

Rick collapsed too, passed out from his overexertion. Gary looked at him solemnly. He got up from the ground, and he felt something moist coat his face. Tears. He wiped them away quickly, and put his pistol back on his belt. He quietly walked around and collected all the weapons for them, and then hauled the two of them on his back, and out of the cave.

“I’m sorry, you two,” Rick whispered as the daylight began to enter his eyes and the cave began to end, “I didn’t know how to fight them all at once. Forgive me. I promise it won’t be like that next time.”

The scales of Rick’s sarco skin shoulder plate shined under the sun as Rick walked along the rivers back to the Book Club’s camp. Rick looked at Skyler sadly.

“The others were so cold to you after you messed up at the obelisk. Was this how you felt when you failed them?” Gary asked her. He looked away.

Gary approached the Book Club camp, and as he did, he saw smoke and flames. He heard battle cries of people he didn’t recognize. What was going on?