BXBX NOVEL Chapter 624 Into Another Place, Pt. 5
The acid splattered across the shield, sizzling as another dagger flew at Keng. Keng pushed the shield forward, watching the dagger and acid connect and instantly exploded the shield and acid in one go. Smoke billowed out at the ant-like monster and Keng as Keng lifted Hydrosphere up.
\'Where is it now?\' Keng thought. His eyes scanned through the smoke, not registering any energy. \'I can\'t read the Dark Matter coming out off of it. Can the ant monster hide its DM?\' A foot slowly slid backwards as the rumble of earth shook beneath him. Keng jumped backwards, watching the mandibles fly upwards as the ant-like monster screeched. Its mandibles closed down on the air, not cutting anything.
Keng landed, launching a couple gravity blasts at it as it flew out of the ground completely. Its carapace dented in a couple of spots as its carapace started to shimmer. Keng could definitely register the energy coming off of it now. It was one hundred percent capable of hiding its Dark Matter from its enemy.
The ant rushed at him, sending a punch at Keng. Keng responded with a block, watching as acid spewed out of its fist. Keng slid backwards, watching as the other arm conjured another dagger.
\'Is that it\'s ability?\' Keng wondered. The ant punched the shield a couple of more times, jumping backwards as it let the dagger sail through the air, again. Keng shoved it forward and listened as another explosion erupted. The cavern shook as Keng\'s ears rang. His eyes focused, watching as the ant\'s Dark Matter energy faded, once again.
Keng\'s aura wrapped around him as he lifted himself off the ground. His eyes studied the ground beneath him as the smoke covered him from his enemy.
\'There.\' A blast of gravity fired from Keng\'s fingers, exploding the ground into a crevice as the sound of burying came. Keng\'s tails shot forward, slamming next tot he ant as it abruptly stopped. It\'s mandibles clicked as it launched itself at the tail, snapping on the tail. The ant\'s flew forward, hitting nothing as another tail hit the ant square in the back, pinning it.
The carapace shattered as the tail buried itself into the ant, piercing its body. The ant\'s eyes widened for a moment before the sound of Keng\'s tails ripping the ant in half was heard. Keng dropped to the ground, pushing the smoke away as sounds of fighting were heard over the comms.
"How the hell do we hit these guys?" Manny asked.
"Their armor is tough!" Ritsuka shouted. "I can\'t get it through with Obsidian Glass!"
"What do we do? There\'s too many of them!" Liz shouted. A bolt of purple lightning flew at two ant-like creatures, bouncing off of them as they held their shoddy weapons out.
"Woah!" Evan shouted. Rocks fell behind him as his eyes went to the hole. "S-shit, we\'re too close!" Evan pushed forward, only to be pushed back by acid.
"What do we do?" Olivia asked, scooting closer to the edge. Ritsuka gritted his teeth as Obsidian Glass faded from his hands, replaced with Angerfang. The scythe hissed as Ritsuka lashed forward, only to be met with acid.
"Argh!" Ritsuka screamed as two ants launched themselves forward, slashing at Ritsuka. The acid lit, exploding and sending Ritsuka past his friends.
"RITSUKA!" Evan shouted. The group watched as their friend sailed straight into the spiky hole. "No!" Without much thought, Evan found himself turning his back to the enemy and trying to desperately reach for Ritsuka.
"No!" Olivia shouted. "Evan!" It was too late. The acid near Evan and Liz lit up, exploding as the two screamed and fell into the hole. "What do we do now, Manny?!? They\'re gonna hit the ground at this point!"
"OH MY FUCKING GOD! SAVE ME!" Ritsuka shouted falling through the air at a quick speed. The spikes came as Ritsuka shut his eyes tightly. He flew past them, smoking as the acid and flames bit at him.
"Jump!" Manny shouted. "Lee, catch us!" Manny motioned for Olivia to leave first as acid sprayed at them. The acid hit Manny and Olivia as Olivia turned and jumped. Screams erupted on the comms as Manny gritted his teeth and jumped.
The comms were filled with nothing but screams for a couple of minutes. When each member realized they weren\'t dead yet, they began to remember what Keng had said. \'It took eight minutes\' for him to hit the bottom. Ritsuka flipped himself a couple of times, looking wherever as he waited for something to happen. The thought of him \'dying\' was at the forefront, but he also knew Keng was at the bottom.
Keng wanted to use the holographic map to tell him where his friends were, but that wouldn\'t be the case. He threw his hands up, encasing the forty-foot diameter opening in a multitude of bubbles that climbed upwards fifty, sixty feet before Keng could feel the heavy strain of the Negative on him.
His legs buckled as he heard Ritsuka falling. He was repeatedly calling for Keng, using both the right and wrong name. Keng lifted his head up and slowly raised his arm.
Bloop!
The gravity bubble had caught Ritsuka and Ritsuka was quickly descending. The bubbles were meant to slow but Keng\'s intention had made the bubbles act more like a slowing mechanism for the "net" he had but at the bottom. Keng followed the quickly but slowly descending Ritsuka as his cosmic energy barely managed to wrap around him.
"Uhhhh, I\'m going to splat!" Ritsuka shouted at Keng.
"No… You aren\'t." Keng repeated. Keng released, watching as Ritsuka slammed into the "net" slowly coming to a stop as the ground came close. "I put a lot of my energy into that one." Ritsuka bounced into the air a couple of times before coming to a nearly complete stop.
"What do I do now?" Ritsuka asked. Keng raised his hand and made a plucking motion. He watched Ritsuka fall from the net and, not-so-gracefully, fall to the ground with a hard thud. "Ow."
"Sorry." Keng sighed. Another set of shouts came. It was Evan and Liz. Keng did the same thing to them, taking a small break as they bounced up and down on the "net."
"Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit!" Evan continuously swore.
"It\'ll be okay, Evan!" Liz attempted to comfort him. "Lee Seng has us. It\'s like a trampoline, right?"
"Bingo." Keng nodded. He plucked the two off, giving Lisa more help while letting Evan take the same fall as Ritsuka. Thankfully, Ritsuka managed to grab the scrawny Tank from hitting the ground as hard as he did.
"Where\'s Manny and Olivia?" Liz asked.
"Still falling!" Olivia shouted. "I think Manny\'s out! He took a lot of that acid!" Keng activated Void Storage and pulled the third to last roe out and popped it into his mouth. He felt his Negative shave off as the aura burned brightly. He would keep this on to help him stave off what was to come.
Keng lifted into the air as Olivia\'s screams grew closer. He pushed past the nets and into the gravity bubbles. Olivia\'s energy made her stick out like a sore thumb in the fog as he disappeared from his spot, grabbing Olivia.
"W-woah." Olivia stuttered. Keng had forgotten one thing: the group hadn\'t seen this form before. "What\'s—" Keng\'s eyes moved up, quickly. His tail shot forward, grabbing Manny as Olivia covered her mouth.
"What are you?" Olivia asked as they all descended to the ground. Keng lowered Manny first before setting Olivia down. "What\'s that form? What did you… Are you even Lee Seng?"
"Uhh…" Ritsuka stuttered, wondering what he should do. Keng let out a sigh and moved over to Manny. He knelt to the ground and put a hand on Manny\'s chest.
"Freeze!" Liz shouted. She held her right hand up like a gun pointed at Keng. "W-w-w-w— How do I know you\'re Lee Seng? What if you\'re just an imitation of him?"
"Liz, he—" Ritsuka began to defend Keng as Liz turned to point at Ritsuka, too.
"How do I know?!?" Liz shouted. Keng let a sigh out and let the Silver light fly into Manny.
"I thought I could honestly go longer, to be honest." Keng sighed, standing up. Liz whipped her finger, firing a shot of lightning at Keng square in the chest. Keng grunted as his torso turned left a bit. "Ow."
"What are you?!? What did you do to Manny!?! Are you going to do the same thing to us?!?" Liz went full maniac mode. Keng let out a sigh and looked over towards Olivia. Olivia stared at him curious. She wanted to defend him yet something was stopping her. Something in her head was starting to hurt her.
"Ah!" Olivia clutched her head.
"Liv, what\'s wrong?" Ritsuka asked taking a step forward. Olivia squeezed her eyes shut. It felt like her Negative was activated even though she didn\'t really do anything.
"W-what\'s wrong… with me? I didn\'t… Use my powers." Olivia slowly spoke. Liz\'s worried face grew as she kept her finger gun pointed at Keng.
"Li-Liv are you okay…?" Liz asked. Keng let out a sigh as the light on Manny\'s body started to fade. Manny gasped, shooting up into the air as he noticed what was happening. A multi-tailed Lee Seng was standing off in front of him while Liz pointed charged purple lightning at him. Olivia was clutching her head while Evan was watching in fear. Ritsuka anxiously looked between Liz, Olivia and Keng.
\'What the fuck happened?\' Manny wondered.