Pirates and the Golden Treasure ch.05

    The walk through the forest is boring, very, very boring; and Rhulan prefers it that way. Betty and Hollia had both clearly wanted action, as well as Betty’s crew, the small creatures are less than happy cutting through low limbs and thick weeds the larger party members would miss. Rhulan knew before coming here that the island was off limits not because of some treasure, no she her self had made up those stories. She had told Hollia and Scrags part of the story, but the truth about underground mechanized tunnels, lost technology, and the hidden secrets was certainly not something she would want some pirates to know about, especially not crazy pirates from another world. Oh yes, Rhulan recognizes these creatures, there is only one place they could have come from, and for them to come to this universe, either more things have changed in the last thousand years than she would have imagined, they are incredibly brave, or just stupid and crazy. Given the conversation they had earlier Rhulan is more set on the latter.

 

    Not far behind them Cata and a handful of her crew, Mr. Boarders, Peter Jones amongst them have tracked Rhulan’s party to the cliff side.

 

    “Mr. Boarders,” says Cata, “Why are we stopping?”

 

   “They didn’t climb down.” He says, “They walked past all the openings to the underground before this point, and yet they stop right here.”

 

    He looks over the side, as does Peter, imagining that they might have fallen.

 

   “Mr. Boarders, Mr. Jones,”

 

    *sigh*

 

    “Don’t forget they are sorceresses, we can assume they can fly.”

 

   “In that case,” says Peter, “why don’t they just fly around instead of walking?”

 

   “Hmmm,” says Cata, “I would have thought that obvious, clearly they are looking for the oracle. Oh yes, my contacts that brought them to us told me they were from Stratalia, sent here by the school’s orders; adventurers with a purpose. Not our usual band of treasure hunters. No doubt they know something, perhaps even what we know. In that case we know exactly where they are headed. The only reason I can see for them not to fly would be the third person. Hmmm”

 

    a broad smile crosses her feline face, “I see, a man who can get my pass card, fitting the description you gave me Mr. Jones, I’d say this one is a thief. Oh yes our two little heroines snuck a thief with them, perhaps they think a thief’s skills will help them find what we couldn’t.”

 

   With a wave she beckons her crew to follow her; they will have to walk the long way down the cliff’s edge, a path they know well enough. The over land route is safe enough, a fact both Cata and Rhulan are aware of.

 

   Back at Rhulan’s party.

 

   “I thought this was all underground?” says Betty whining.

 

   “No,” says Rhulan, “The treasure, the oracle, our best bet is to go to central lake at the middle of the island. What we are all looking for is right

under there. Any thing else would be a suicide mission for most anyone.”

 

   She looks at Betty with a stern face, “Unless you think those Figmentions with their toy swords can take on plasma cannon wielding robots that crawl all over the walls like a swarm of spiders.”

 

   Betty looks at the six or so with her, “Uh, I guess not.”

 

   The old cat eyes her suspiciously, “Excuse me, Captain, but shouldn’t you ask how this woman knows to call us Figmentions?”

 

    Betty cocks her head sideways, “uhhhhh, why? That’s what you are.”

 

    The cat shakes his head as Rhulan stifles a laugh.

 

    “we’re here.” announces Rhulan pushing back a few trees to reveal an open field with short grass, looking un-naturally cut for this location. The  large crystal clear lake adding to the surreal atmosphere.

 

 

   “Woah,” says Betty as she hears the birds chirping, a sound that wasn’t present in the forest for some reason. She had expected more forests, or some mechanical structure going underground, in fact she thought her guides would take them down some tunnel, she had heard from the same man who gave her the map they were around but she couldn’t find them.

 

    “This is it,” says Rhulan, “The Oracle is under ground right here, we just have to…”

 

    “Not so fast!”

 

   The feral scream, a sound between a cat’s and a woman’s draws all their attention, and utterly terrifies the mice creatures.

 

    Cata, swords drawn, with her five men steps out from the forest’s edge.

 

    “Well, well, well,” she says half growling, “What do we have here, our two prisoners as it were, their rescuer, that dragon thing, and what looks to be some…other pirates…”

 

     *heeehhhh, rrrrrr, hisss*.

 

    She turns angrily to Mr. Boarders, “Mr. Boarders, contact the ship, I want to know how another ship got here! Order them to attack!”

 

    “Hey, meanie!” yells Betty, “How dare you go after my ship! Don’t you know who I am? I am Captain Betty, the bane of…”

 

   “Shut the hell up!” screams Cata, “Some pumpkin pirate princess, little girl, and her…what ever the hell those things are, with her decoys…oh yesss, I sssee it now, the adventurersss sssneak in around ussss, they dissstract usss, and you piratessss come in…”

 

   She cocks her head back, “you came in from the north?!” she eyes the adventurers and the other pirates.

 

   *rumble*, a slight tremor, going un-noticed by everyone save for Rhulan who nods at Scrags as he turns invisible.

 

    “I’ll sort this out later!”

 

    She points her swords at them, “Men! Attack, capture those who would dare take my treasure.”

 

    “Now this is what I’m talking about! Yeeeee!” screams Betty as she draws her gun.

 

    The two groups rush for each other, but just as Hollia is about to enter the fray she is snagged by the collar by Rhulan and dragged into the air. Below she sees Betty’s gun rather than shooting bullets is sending out exploding fire balls which she is intentionally aiming at the feet of the other pirate crew’s feet.

 

  Her Adorables as she calls them seem better adept at dodging sword slashes and striking just the blades than actually fighting, working more as distractions for their captain’s attacks kicking up the dirt. Their strategy is clear, to scare off their enemies.

 

    High in the air Rhulan lets go of Hollia who just floats, “I…I’m really getting the hang of this.” She says surprised at her own skill, as LinLin flies up beside her.

 

    Below she sees one of Cata’s crew, the man Peter, flee into the woods after being knocked down by exploding soil at his feet from Betty’s gun, as Cata’s attention is drawn to Betty.

 

    Betty is forced to jump back as Cata throws an arc of blue energy from her sword’s edge.

 

     “Oh, come on!” says Betty, “you need to just run kitty cat!”

 

    She takes off her hat, allowing some very long and silky blond hair to fall from her head down the length of her back; hair which couldn’t naturally fall so perfectly after being in a hat. She points the open end of her hat at the very confused Cata.

 

    “Hat Trick!” she yells out as a blast of water comes forth from it knocking Cata back and pushing her across the ground.

 

    *ptew* Cata spits out the water as she struggles to her feet.

 

      “Salt water!? Why you lousy bitch!” she screams.

 

      With another growl she lunges forth, Betty orders her men to retreat back to the boat, save for Mr. Whiskers her third in command, her first mate having stayed with the boat.

 

    Cata waves her own men away save for Mr. Boarders, “Time we got serious little Witch.” says Cata, “a shame, I rather liked the well manicured look of the X-spot.”

 

    High above Hollia can’t see Scrags anywhere, “Where did Scrags go?”

 

   “Don’t worry.” Says Rhulan, “I told him to turn invisible and not get involved.”

 

    “but Miss Rhulan, we have to help Miss Betty, that Cata Lady is serious she might hurt her.”

 

    Rhulan looks down as Betty’s hair under its own power coils up on top of her head, her ears clearly now being pointed, but not so long that anyone could see that in such a short time who doesn’t have a sharp eye, Cata has two sharp eyes. With her hat placed back on her head, Betty’s ears become human shaped again.

 

   “Something tells me she can handle herself,” says Rhulan, “She was just toying with them before, that girl has more strength than she’s letting on. We have another issue, sense the life signs. We are about to have company.”

 

    Hollia closes her eyes, she can feel it, her closed eyes twitch. It’s not something she can recognize, something weird, alien, not like the Dah-hoth, but not like any animal, plant, or person she has sensed since she started sensing life signs.

 

    “The test begins.” says Rhulan, “Amoe-baals”

 

    Beneath the ground, a trembling, a rumbling not felt by the combatants on the surface till just before they collide.

 

 

    Next to Betty a black circle appears in the air by her left side, reaching her left hand into this abysmal space as though it were simply a pouch she pulls out a second gun, a blue one in contrast to the red one in her right hand.

 

     Cata leaps into the air, her swords glowing with a blue spiritual fire. Betty aims her guns at her, however just as Cata comes down a white blur shoots up between them knocking Cata back, a trail of dirt behind it.

 

    As the blur comes high into the air, it can be seen to be a white blob, a gelatin like slime, which Rhulan destroys with a stream of fire from her hand, “Dragon’s Fire!”

 

   “Now!” she screams, “Scrags, Hollia, everyone here prepare for battle. Fire and lightning are our only chances, or else the amoe-baals will consume us all!”

 

    Cata and Betty look around; they finally notice the rumbling earth beneath their feet as more and more of the amoe-baals squirm free from the dirt. They seem to have slowed their assent

 

    “Amy-balls?” asks Betty cocking her head to the side.

 

   “No.” says Rhulan as she lands, Hollia close behind her with LinLin circling around her, apparently she can go up no problem, its coming back down she needs some work on.

 

   “Amoe-baals,” she says, “As in Amoeba-lords, Baal, two A’s one L as in higher demon or god, a word that means lord. It’s a play on words. These things are gods to amoebas.”

 

    “Dragon’s Fire!” she yells out releasing another blast of flames from her hands reducing a charging amoe-baal to a smoldering charcoal biscuit looking thing.  

 

   “Now get your heads on straight,” she smiles a wicked smile, “you people wanted treasure, well here’s the guardians of the loot. You gotta prove your worth.”

 

    Cata smiles, “well then, remind me to ask you how the hell you pulled this off later, but until then…”

 

    “Earth Shredder!” bringing down both her swords, each glowing with their un-natural blue spirit fire into the ground its self she unleashes two waves of slicing energy that shred the ground and the amoe-baals in the blast’s path.

 

    “Can’t let you have all the fun.” says Betty, “Okay you slime balls I’ll give you what I was going to give the cat-lady, a little taste of my double guns.”

 

    *zzzzzzzat*

 

     *screeeee*

 

     the blue ball of electrical energy, dissolving the amoe-baal into a puddle of white slime came from none other than Betty’s blue gun.

 

    “Okay!” she says, blasting some with the exploding fire balls of her red gun and others with the electrifying orbs from her blue gun, going to town.

 

    As the swarm intensifies Cata and Betty are overwhelmed by the sheer number of them not able to see past the enemies in front of them or having time to call on stronger attacks.

 

    “Good,” says Rhulan as she throws out one dragon’s fire spell after another at the seemingly endless swarm, “Scrags stop standing around and keep these bastards off our backs.”

 

   “Yeah, yeah,” he says as he continues tossing about his exploding fire knives, taking more than a few hits to take down just one amoe-baal.

 

   On their other side LinLin has coiled up and created a red sphere around her self, rather than spinning as she had before. From the red orb she unleashes multiple fire salamanders, one after another, destroying the swarming enemies before they can get close.

 

      “Saint’s Fire!” yells out Hollia as amoe-baals come in past Scrags and LinLin, summoning blue spirit fire over her staff with which to strike down the monsters, one after another, and another, and another.

 

   “They wont stop coming?” yells out Hollia.

 

    “Put up a barrier!” yells Rhulan, “There are no more under the ground! I’ll try something else.”

 

   Hollia erects a Saint’s Fire barrier in front of them keeping the amoe-baals at bay as Rhulan starts a big spell.

 

    “Ancient god,

     lord of the burning sun,

    king of the first king,

    oh, lord of fire,

    I call your strength,

    By your guiding hand to destroy our enemies,

    Fire-Ra!”

 

    Above Rhulan, above her hands pointed to the heavens, a red glowing orb has appeared and hatches as though it were an egg, from the impossibly cracked flames burning wings spread out, and a bird’s head of fire pokes free.

 

    *scraaaa,*

 

     The bird of flames screams as would any eagle as it takes wing, flying faster than any natural bird save perhaps for some in this world such as a wind falcon, but none that could fly in the same manner. The Fire-Ra spell darts back and forth ripping through the amoe-baals, reducing one after another to ash, it darts through a few in front of Scrags, cuts off Cata from one she is about to slice, finished off another being attacked by Betty and her electric gun, before darting to and throw as a blur reducing the remaining multitudes to smoldering black clumps.

 

    Betty turns to Rhulan, “You couldn’t have done that sooner? I mean…”

 

   *sigh*

 

     “I am pooped man.”

 

    Cata re-sheaths her swords seeing no more of their enemy around.

 

   “Had to wait;” says Rhulan, “till they were all on the surface, or at least all that were left. She always sends exactly fifty of them bastards out. Got to love when you can predict how many enemies to expect.”

 

    “you planned this?” asks Cata as she sheathes her blades.

 

    *shrugs*

 

    “Not really,” says Rhulan, “I knew to expect anywhere from fifty to a hundred or so of those amoe-baals. With or with out you guys we had it covered.”

 

   “heh,” says Cata, “at any rate a very impressive Fire-Ra, never seen anyone actually use it like that, heard it could be of course, but only seen sorcerers use it to strike one opponent or try and keep it around through recharging in fires. At any rate who…”

 

    Any further questions by Cata are cut short by…

 

    “Mr. Whiskers!” Betty’s screaming, “Mr. Whiskers, where are you?!”

 

   “Miss Rhulan!” says Betty about to come to tears, dropping any act of being a tough pirate, “I can’t find Mr. Whiskers, I…I…think, oh no!”

 

    *waaaaah*!!

 

    Cata looks around, looking concerned, she searches amongst the charred bodies littering the ground, surprised as they begin to fade into nothingness, even the holes they made vanishing as they return to the well manicured lawn look as though the battle never happened.

 

   “Mr. Boarders!” she yells out, “oh, you better not be dead!”

 

    “Calm down you two.” says Rhulan.

 

    With a snap of her fingers a purple archaic symbol appears on the ground, a pillar of light rising from it, and appearing inside both Mr. Boarders and Mr. Whiskers.

 

   “Can’t have any casualties,” says Rhulan, “at least not have them and expect to pass the test. Had to remove your servants to another dimension for the time being.”

 

     “Damn it.” She thinks to herself, “It’s taking too long to regain my former strength. That Fire-Ra and a dimension hide shouldn’t be taking even this much power, I should have been able to single handedly wipe out all those amoe-baals with a Fire-Ra with out needing to perform the incantation and use a dimension hide at the same time.”

 

      Cata begins to voice a complaint even as Betty zips past her picking up her cat like second mate as though he were a stuffed toy.

 

   *cough*

 

     In an exaggerated pose, fist to mouth she coughs as she sets him down, “I mean good to see you survived me…hardy, ha ha.”

 

   “Of course my captain,” he says eying Rhulan, “Although I would like warning, and for that matter to never go through that again.”

 

   “Now see here!” says Cata, “I…”

 

    *rumble*

 

   The ground shakes again,

 

   “More!?” yells Cata.

 

    Rhulan just smiles even as her own party looks nervous.

 

   *kra-kroom!*

 

    Rock and dirt fly into the air as a massive gold scaled serpent neck with a dragon’s head appears from the ground; the head being a more crocodilian, with a frilled crest manner than say LinLin with her mammalian head.

 

    Rhulan holds her hand out in front of Hollia, “Don’t attack, this isn’t our enemy.”

 

    “You sure about that girly?” says Cata swords drawn.

 

    “Yes!” yells Rhulan in a stern voice that even causes Cata to withdraw her weapons with out thinking.

 

    *kra-kroom!*

   *kra-kroom!*

   *kra-kroom!*

   *kra-kroom!*

    *kra-kroom!*

     ect…

 

    Around the edge of the lake many more of the heads emerge, slithering as though dancing in the air.

 

    *hisssss!*

 

   “Oh shit.” says Scrags, “I really, really, really, hope we don’t have to fight this. I mean really, boss, those blob freaks is one thing, but this shit is messed up.”

 

   All the heads turn in their direction at once and with a raspy, yet somehow underneath, a groggy woman’s voice says, “Who disturbs my slumber?”