Chapter Nine: Cold-blooded Evil!
“Damn not another town” said Hank in a disappointed voice watching the TV in front of him.
Will and Autumn then both entered the room after hearing Hank. Will lent up against the doorframe and Autumn walked a little further into the room to see the TV better. The news reporter started to talk again. “Not one survivor was found everyone was dead and every building was destroyed. Investigators believe the same girl that pulled the previous attacks is also responsible for this current one. Scientist are now studying the burn marks on the rubble to see exactly what kind of force we are up against here.”
“It’s Elisa” replied Autumn in a sad kind of voice. “If only I knew sooner I could have…”
Will cut her short. “Could have died!” he replied to her.
Hank nodded in agreement. “Will is right Autumn if that thing is some kind of higher up dark being even us hunters could stand no chance at stopping it”
“I’ll find a way!” she said. Autumn then stormed out of the room she was upset that no one had confidence in her defeating the Profound Darkness. Autumn rushed past Isa who was making her way to the lounge room.
“Autumn what’s wrong?” Isa asked but Autumn ignored her and just headed back to the spare room with the boxing bag ready to burn her anger. Isa then walked into the lounge room both men were in. “What’s up with Autumn?” she asked.
Will shook his head and replied “Women!” he then walked past Hank and pat him on the shoulder “I’ll see you at the Guild, I’ll take Autumn with me. Lets the three of us do a hunt together today”
“Sure thing” said Hank getting up from the chair he was in.
“Wait don’t you want me to get breakfast ready first?” asked Isa.
“I’ll be fine” replied Will. “See ya soon” he winked at both Motavians then left the room. “Autumn we’re going now!” he shouted.
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Will and Autumn both silently walked to the Guild there was a little bit of tension between the two. When the two arrived at the door Autumn stopped but Will continued to walk in.
“Wait” she asked “Please wait Will”
Will turned around and walked closer to her he didn’t say anything though.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to get angry with you or Hank this morning.” She told him. “I just want you to be able to trust me. I originally became a hunter to find my friend and I will do what ever it takes to release her from that monster.”
“I admire your determination. I truly do” Will replied. “But there is a difference between saving someone and throwing your life away. That creature destroyed a village and I can assure you several people living in that village would have been qualified hunters. They are now all dead!”
“I understand what your saying” Autumn replied taking into consideration he didn’t want her to die on him.
“Look alive you two” said a familiar voice. Both hunter’s turned and saw Hank coming toward them. He seemed cheery as usual.
“Hank!” exclaimed Autumn.
“That’s me” he said laughing. He then rested both his blue hands on each of their shoulders. “Will spoke to me this morning. He asked if I would go on a hunt with you today”
“Really, your going to come with us for once” Autumn actually sounded excited never in the whole three weeks she had been a hunter had she seen Hank’s capabilities he was after all the very person who singly killed a sandworm and saved Autumn’s life.
“The hard part is picking the most suitable hunt” said Will.
“Very true” replied Hank.
Suddenly a young man can running toward the three Hunter’s he was panting and he was covered in scratches blood was all over his face. His short brown hair was all messy and his brown eyes showed he was terrified of something. “Please, please help!” he shouted. He then lost balance and fell Autumn quickly ran forward and caught him in her arms.
“What’s wrong?” she asked helping straighten him up on his own two feet.
“A lamia!” he replied “It has them both, it turned them into stone before my eyes it then started attacking me I ran as fast as my legs could carry me”
“A lamia” exclaimed Hank. He then looked at Will.
“And how did you manage to run into a lamia” asked Will he seemed to doubt the creature existed.
“We, we were exploring the cave” the young man said.
“What cave was it” asked Autumn who seemed concerned for the poor guy.
“The Valley Maze” he replied
“The place leading to old Tonoe” replied Hank.
“Your certain that was the cave?” asked Will
“Yes sir” said the man.
“Well guy’s I think our hunt found us today” said Autumn.
“If we really are up against a lamia we must go prepared.” Hank seemed quite serious all of a sudden.
“Can you get yourself to a medical centre?” asked Autumn.
“Yes of course just please save them before it decides to eat them, please”
“Leave it to us” said Hank “Just go get healed up. I’m sure more than one person in there knows GiRes” he told him.
The man nodded and then left the hunters running toward the hospital close by.
“The only lamia like creature I have ever heard of was the one that Alis Landale defeated a thousand years ago” said Will scratching his head.
(“Alis Landale”) Autumn thought to herself the statue of the girl appeared in her mind again, she was certainly heroic looking she also seemed a few years younger then Autumn from what she remembered of the statue.
“If we are up against a lamia, we will need mirror goggles” Hank said.
“What?” asked Autumn who never heard of such things.
“If that lamia gets direct eye contact with us we will become petrified turning into solid rock. The mirror goggles reflect on the outside like a mirror but allow us to see out of them like normal glasses through the inside you see?”
“So it wont be able to get eye contact with us it will only see its reflection.”
“Exactly Autumn” Hank was surprised she caught on so quickly.
“What about brining back that guys rocky friends” she asked.
This time Will spoke up. “If we are going to turn those guys back to flesh and blood we’ll need to get our hands on a dose of Alsulin.”
“What’s Alsulin?” asked Autumn
“It’s a type of antidote you could say and by pouring it over solid stone you can change it back to the real thing it was. However today it is mostly used on normal rocks to decompose them so Hunter’s can have access to caves and such that house nests of monsters” answered Will.
“Okay then I guess it’s settled. Will you go talk to Sarah and fill her in. Also ask if we can get our hands on a land rover too, it’ll get us there faster. Autumn follow me we’ll head for the items room and get the mirror goggles and a bottle of Alsulin while we’re at it. Lets meet back here in about ten minutes” instructed Hank he definitely took his hunts seriously.
Autumn and Will both nodded and went their separate ways.
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All three eventually met back outside again each of them wearing armour and they all seemed to hold something significant to the hunt in their hands.
“Unfortunately the land rover isn’t available to us it was taken by another group of hunters to exterminate a recently discovered Antlion nest not far from Termi which is much further than the Valley Maze it’s across the sea of quick sand. So it looks like we’re walking” informed Will. “Also because this wasn’t an official hunt we probably wouldn’t have been given immediate access to the land rover anyway”
“Well we’re going to sleep well tonight then everyone” replied Hank turning the matter into a bit of a joke.
“You think you can handle it” Will asked Autumn.
“After running miles to reach the main spaceport on Palma I think I can make it to this Valley Maze place” she replied happily.
“Excellent” said Hank “Lets move then everyone”
All three left the city and started heading to their destination.
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After travelling for nearly three hours in the hot desert the hunter’s all stopped.
“I really hope that kid was right about it being the valley maze. If we get all this way out here and find out it was a cave closer back I’m not gonna be happy” replied Will.
“That’s just the chance you take” said Hank “Not to mention he seemed really scared I doubt he was lying to us, and he came straight to us meaning he was wanting help desperately. Kudos to the guy for running all this way too”
Out here the desert and everything in it was your enemy and only the strongest will survive.
“That’s it just up ahead” Hank pointed out. The group looked in front of them and seen a dark cave around a hundred meters away just looking at the place felt uncomforting it looked so dark and it most-likely housed thousands of monsters and there was a lamia in there as well just to make things even worse. The group walked closer to the entrance then stopped.
“Autumn you stay close to me in here okay, this place is called the Valley Maze for a reason” instructed Will he was quite serious too.
“Yes you stay with Will, Autumn I know this place quite well. We won’t split up until we have a fair idea of where the other captives are and where the lamia is” Hank replied.
Autumn just nodded in agreement. She extracted her claws and followed the two men into the cave. Inside small patches of light entered through cracks in the roof of the cave and it was moist, very moist considering this planet was all desert. Water could be heard dripping off in the distance it echoed throughout the cave. Small green plants seemed to grow on the walls of the cave as well.
Suddenly Autumn spoke up. “Did you hear that?” she asked.
“Hear what?” both men asked. Suddenly a buzzing noise could be heard and several shapes could be seen moving around in the dark not to far in front of the hunters.
“What are those things?” asked Autumn squinting her eyes trying to make out their shapes in the dark room
“Flatter Plants” replied Hank pulling his large knife out of its covering on his belt.
Will then pulled the sword out from behind his back.
“It seems they’ve smelt our scent so they should be coming in three, two, one…” counted Hank and he was right, the party was then ambushed by several Flatter Plants.
They appeared to be flying plant pods with green roots hanging down from their body they also had two claws on each side of them that looked like the head of a Venus-fly trap.
“Heeeyaaa!” shouted Will as he slashed through a plant it split into two and fell to the ground.
“Nice!” replied Hank who then slashed through three at the same time. The plants just began falling from the sky in pieces covering the ground.
“Haaa!” Autumn shouted as she tore through the first flatter plant to come by her. They didn’t seem like a very threatening species not yet anyway. Suddenly another plant came toward Autumn pollen seemed to be foaming at it’s mouth.
“Autumn watch out for the acid breath!” shouted Hank reaching his hand out.
Then the flatter plant opened its pod like mouth and spewed out litres of hot acidic liquid Autumn then dropped and rolled dodging the attack. She then looked at the acidic liquid it had steam rising from it and it seemed to sink into the ground burning a hole into it as it went down. It wasn’t that far from getting her either.
“Die!” shouted Will he then slashed down straight through the idling plant that spewed acid from it’s mouth. Autumn and Hank then finished off a few remaining plants that just seemed to be spectating the battle.
“Is that all of them?” asked Autumn.
“That’s the last of the flatter plants” replied Hank” But something else in here with us too. It’s above us” Hank then threw his large knife straight up into the air above him. The hunters then looked up and seen a large orange lizard sticking to the roof like a gecko does.
“Graaa!!!” it screamed as it fell from the roof wounded. While the lizard was falling toward the ground Hank pulled his knife from it’s back. It then landed on its feet and leapt straight toward the hunters. Autumn slashed at it with her claws and Will attacked it with his powerful sword. It then hit the ground dead next to all the other dead plants it stood no chance.
“What a nasty place” replied Autumn retracting her claws looking at all the monster’s they killed in the past few minutes. “So what was that huge lizard thing?” she asked.
“A Sand Newt” replied Hank putting away his knife.
“Yeah plenty of those guys live in caves like this. Thankfully it was only one, which is why it was easy to dispose of. When they hunt in packs usually three or four of them they can be a real threat even to us hunters” added Will.
“Yes you got that right” Hank replied
“Well shall we move in further and find these stone men?” asked Autumn.
“Yeah lets go kiddo” replied Will. The group then got closer to each other and left this area of the cave and headed in further.
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The group had been walking for nearly twenty minutes by now.
“Huh, isn’t it funny that’s there’s no more monsters” asked Will.
“It’s strange that’s for sure” Hank replied looking around.
They kept walking then suddenly right in front of them was several sand newts but each one of them lay dead. Huge chunks of their flesh had been eaten away their mangled bodies lay rotting on the cave floor. Something larger had been feeding on all the sand newts in the valley maze.
“Oh…that’s really nasty” replied Autumn staring at all the mutilated lizards in front of them. She had a grossed out look about her.
“You said it” Will even had a grossed out look on his face.
“That explains why that one was trying to hunt us down singly It looks like his friends had been taken by something else” Hank added.
Suddenly Autumn noticed something white in the corner of her eye. She looked over toward it then ran over and grabbed it. “It’s a shoe” she replied holding it up showing the two men. In her raised hand she held a white running shoe. Humans had definitely been here.
“Lets keep going this way then” Hank sounded really determined now.
Autumn and Will just followed him without saying a word.
Just one area away from all the dead sand newts the hunters entered a large open room and in the back of the room were two petrified men. They had been turned into solid rock the frozen signs on their faces showed they were terrified before concreting.
“Okay everyone put on your mirror goggles” Hank whispered. The other two didn’t object they followed Hanks order. The lamia couldn’t be to far away now.
Autumn slowly walked up to the two rocky men. She looked very closely at them. “How do we get them out of here?” she asked “They must weigh a tonne now”
“We’ll have to carry them” replied Will. “When we get outside we’ll bring them back to flesh it’s to dangerous to do that in here however”
Then suddenly small rocks began falling from the roof of the cave and the room began shaking. Something was coming, it was moving fast and it was big. The three hunters then directed their attention upward and saw a large hold that sat in the roof of the cave it was pitch black it must have lead deeper into the cave again.
“Autumn stay over there!” shouted Will
“Yes, of course!” she replied she had her claws out encase anything attacked her.
Hank and Will also took out their weapons.
Then suddenly two massive hands with very long silver nails grabbed the edging around the hole in the roof. A woman’s head emerged from the hole. Her head was covered in green snakes each one was alive, hissing and thrashing about madly they seemed to act as her hair. She pulled herself out further her face seemed quite young she only looked to be in her early twenties appearance wise but of course this wasn’t the case she was definitely much, much older than she looked. As her upper body emerged it was seen she had fair skin like that of a caucasian human but her skin had a slight shine to it and it reflected light very easy like small scales in reptiles do. A metallic brassiere covered her chest, her long purple scaly coloured tail then trailed out of the hole behind her and she rose up and towered over the hunters she was about the same size as the Locusta they fought weeks before.
The Hunters were in awe that the monster that stood before them was indeed a lamia.
It then spoke “I was wondering when the search party would get here. Well now hunters I will be your entertainer for this battle. I’ve entitled the event your last fight!” her voiced actually seemed quite placid but just like her false appearance this was just a put on to try and deceive the three.
None of the hunters replied they just stared at her holding their weapons out.
Her menacing eyes checking each of them out. Luckily they had no effect on them due to the mirror goggles.
“Mirror goggles huh, very smart. Oh how rude of me I almost forget to tell you three. I’m Medusa…and welcome to the fight of your life!”
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