“No movement,” came the voice of Silver.
“I can not sense them either,” was the response in the voice of Tari.
“As we feared then, both teams have disappeared,” concluded Torunei.
The sky, clouded gray and ready to rain. The terrain, rocky and torn apart with loose gravel all around. The three moved lightly stepping over many of the holes found in the rocky terrain. Rocks tumbled from higher up, cracking upon the ground leaving scuffs where they’d land.
Tari took head of the group while Silver crouched with both hands now flat to the ground. Slowly his palms moved and brushed lighter against the surface. Without word he rose with his head shaking.
“Someone or something took out two squads of knights. That doesn’t just happen,” Torunei mumbled.
“Whatever it was must have been right near us the last time we were here though. Last communications with the squads was three hours after we left,” Tari murmured.
“So it was something in the area? How did we miss the presence of Lunagen though!”
“I’m not so sure we’re dealing with Lunagen, Silver,” Torunei murmured.
“Hmm?”
“Lunagen are clunky and clumsy, not the sort of creatures that would pull off stealth strikes and leave no bodies or blood. Whatever it was is pretty resourceful at the very least.”
“Reminds me of my dad’s mother in law,” Tari chuckled.
“Really?”
“Hey, I refuse to call her grandma.”
“You’d think dead people would have a little more charm to them,” Silver mumbled.
“Are we truly dead though? Some of us were born, others of us died in life and just got Elysium as another chance. What truly are we?” Torunei replied
“Wait so what if someone born here dies? Do we just die die or do we just get reborn?”
“That IS the question.”
“No guys the question is where did the knight squads go,” Silver concluded.
“And why are there trenches everywhere? Lunagen don’t trench.”
“To add, Tari, why are there several more of those metal plates lying around?”
“Not sure but you know what I’m thinking?” Tari murmured, “I’m thinking this isn’t the work of Lunagen.”
“What makes you say that?”
“That,” Tari swiftly replied with a point.
All at once the ground shattered to their West, rumbles of a quake ripping through to them. Out of the ground shot a massive entity, one of brown and black primarily with white. A metallic roar ripped through the air, stubby paws with long claws, a mole-like creature with a white underbelly. Down it slammed with reflective black eyes, though not usual eyes, more like giant black glass plates. It’s mouth opened, bolts exposed as the roar hit again.
“Kah-!” Torunei gagged in shock, all as Silver and Tari stared with naked expressions, “A giant fricken robo mole? Knights died to a giant robotic rodent, are you serious?!”
The beast let out another roar as its front slammed flat, the paws pushing against the ground as it casually began to pull itself towards them. Tari made a half turn of her body with eyes locked to it, Silver stared on blank almost bored, and Torunei with an utterly shocked expression. It stopped many meters away, the reflectiveness of the eyes disappearing to reveal a man’s face temporarily just as smoke popped out the back of the head.
“Are you serious right now?!” Tari called out.
“BRAAAAAGHKWAFLALALA,” came the metallic response, a high pitched shriek of a speaker heard, “PATHETIC MORTALS, I THE MOLE KING HAVE COME FOR YOUR-”
“Its mouth didn’t even- hey, operator dude, did you kill our knights?!” Torunei barked flailing his arms mockingly.
Silver and Tari both chuckled to themselves as the mic once more squealed, a response coming from the mole as its mouth began to finally move, “YOU MORTALS DARE TO INTRUDE UPON OUR LAND! YOU WILL ALL BE-”
“Yeah we know you’re a guy in a giant robot man, cut the act!” Torunei barked yet again.
“I WILL- wait wha, what? How the bloody hell could you tell?!”
“GEE I WONDER!”
“YOU SMART ALEX BRAT!”
“ALEC, NOT ALEX!”
“GAH!!!! I WILL EAT YOU!!!”
“Tari,” Silver muttered.
“Oh, right, that thing I do.”
“Your machine looks like that crap my goat took last night!” Torunei continued.
“HOW DARE YOU, MY MOTHER DESIGNED THIS!!”
“Well it shows!”
“BOY I AM GOING TO SLAP YOU SO HARD UPSIDE THE HEAD!”
Tari’s body shifted, a blur of movement as she slammed her hands down with eyes locked to the claws of the giant machine, “Frost Art~”
Once more the ground rumbled, the ground in front of Tari quickly turning blue. A rippling wave of white and blue shot forward, shards of near see-through substance blasting out almost like diamond. Quickly it spread, the spikes becoming taller and taller as they zoomed under Torunei. A white powder flopped itself all around the mole, the ground rumbling until it broke through. Spikes upon spikes of ice launched themselves, slamming straight through the hands and body like diamond through paper.
“NOOOOOOOO!!!!” the voice yelled as a massive pike of ice slammed clear through the torso of the massive robotic mole.
Sparks flew along with smoke, flames blasting clear out of the thing. Light left, the eyes darkening with the speakers coming to a shrieking halt. All at once a blast was heard, the core of the device ruptured. The ice and body blew apart, the head flopping down and rolling off to the right with the glass breaking. Out of one of the eye sockets the man flopped, half out and half in green in the face.
“Guh-” he groaned as flames shot up from the remaining torso of the mole, the parts raining down everywhere.
“Wow, good shot Tari.”
“Uh, thanks Torunei. That was just, kinda sad in all honesty.”
“Actually that was just too easy,” Silver mumbled.
“Yeah, I know. Silver, feel around in case more trouble is on the way. Torunei… have a little fun. I’m going to feel around myself.”
“Gotcha Tari. Guess I’ll go have my fun, heh heh,” Torunei chuckled stomping off towards the man.
“I know what you’re thinking Tari, and I think you’re right. A giant mole robot that you took down in two shakes of a dog’s tail killing knight squads? A clumsy, idiotic thing like that just, no, it doesn’t seem right.”
“Guys in robots aren’t under our jurisdiction either. The knights could have easily fled.”
A slithering could be heard, a slithering that caught Tari’s immediate attention. Her head cast glancing shots, left then right, a turn back only to see nothing, nothing but the plants. Silver continued, “Let’s be real Tari, yeah the knights should have been able to take that down if it was the mole guy that got them but clearly we both think there’s more to this. Something happened to the knights, something terrible that we damn well know the result of. Whatever did that to them is still out there.”
Again the slithering, again the creaking, both looking around this time only to see nothing. Torunei at point arrived near the struggling man, his blood leaking from his nose, “Oh man, oh man, that hurts, that hurts!”
“Hello there,” Torunei chuckled.
“Gah! You-” the man barked.
“So you think you’re real cool killing our guys off eh?”
“What are you even talking about?!”
“Our knights, our soldiers. We lost contact with them and now we’re assuming that they’ve been killed. We try to look around and here you come, a dude in a giant suspicious mole robot thing!”
“No- no I didn’t man, I swear! I’m just a miner that-”
“Causing earth quakes as you mine to drive people off? Impersonating the super natural? Yeah real funny.”
“No you’ve got it all wrong. I swear I didn’t do anything!”
“You’ve got a lot of explaining to do so why don’t you just-”
Yet again the ground began to rumble, cracks forming off to the North. All eyes turned, all watching as another giant mole blast its way out in a huff, its shriek heard as it emerged.
“KAH, another one?!” Torunei spat.
It turned its head, facing Torunei and the man, shrieking. Tari and Silver took stance ready, though at once their expressions and stances became slack and coarse. The ground shattered with rock flying, dozens upon dozens of massive vines blasting out of the ground slithering like snakes, all around the second mole robot. Quickly they arched and slammed themselves, blasting straight through the metal ripping all out as they dug in. The mole struggled, shrieking out with the cry of a man as the speakers became distorted.
Quickly it dropped, sinking down back into the land as the vines began to pull. Torunei shot up defensively as the others grew tense, hearing the scream over the speaker through the rumbling until both ceased many seconds later.
“What the heck was that?!” Torunei barked.
“Th-th-thas the thing, that’s the thing there!”566Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGQfNcW1s9L
