Bonnie fought valiantly, against whom she could not remember. Occasionally, she had flashes of a blue face and tentacles. They filled her with fear and made her hide in a corner of her calcium dungeon.
Bonnie tried to sleep but couldn’t. As soon as her eyes closed, she saw herself surrounded by bloodied water and by the corpses of her fellow echidnas who were dropping towards the ocean’s depths. This filled her with rage. She was always filled with rage.
Bonnie burst out of her corner and attacked the first dismembered skeleton she could find. She had already broken the poor bastard to bits, but she continued cutting him with her trident until he was nothing but dust.
Bonnie then looked around in dismay. She was running out of skeletons to dismember. Most of them were already finer than sand, and when a sudden gust of wind blew past her, they flew into the air and got stuck on her tail.
A moment later, a man appeared in front of her, Bonnie did not know from where.
‘Another illusion.’ “Why do you haunt me? Die William!”
“Wow, this one talks!?”
Finn stabbed the echidna 33 times. The last thing Bonnie saw were dozens of copies of the same person piercing her body 99 times.
She felt every single blow, even the ones which did not happen. Yet, it was not Finn she saw during this time, but someone else.
“Curse you, William… and forgive me.”
The echidna gave her last breath, while Finn disappeared and returned to his friends.
“Coast is clear. Caroline, you’re up.”
It was a long, arduous journey getting to the end of the whale. However, their group had nothing but time. Their stamina was endless, and even the merfolk and the one goblin were not weak enough to grow tired or fall behind. They were truly a perfect invading force: ruthless, relentless, and unstoppable.
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“You…” A wrinkled echidna blabbered when he saw Caroline approach. “You!!” He charged at her, swinging his trident.
However, the weapon hit the cube and not Caroline. The box then released a wave of black energy which disintegrated the echidna’s upper body.
“Youuu,” Natalie laughed as she approached.
“What else does that cube do?” asked Finn, but he received no answer.
Passing through the following vertebrae was done in a similar fashion. Either, Finn, Natalie, or Caroline would go in and the others would follow once the battle was over.
There was always a single, old, battle crazed echidna in each bone cavity, and they were all defeated with relative ease.
At the end of a long day of killing and flying, they took a few minutes to rest before entering what was likely the final portion of the whale's spine.
While the others were chatting in a circle, Finn was playing with the last echidna's golden trident, trying to get a feel for its properties.
"Caroline, only generals have golden tridents, yes? And these generals are the strongest echidnas in the kingdom, right?"
"The position is awarded based on individual prowess..."
"But they're weak," Natalie jumped in.
"Is there anything stronger in this kingdom than the generals?" asked Finn.
Caroline furrowed her brows.
"I will assume myself, this whale and other unknowns are excluded. Rumors have reached me that the echidnas serving the sovereign are stronger. They have to be. Their leader, Saul, should have long since been housed inside this whale.
From what I've gathered, they go through great lengths to preserve what little is left of his mind."
"It's because he's even stronger, right?"
Caroline nodded.
"Can I and Natalie beat him?"
Caroline opened her eyes and looked at Natalie for a second, who frowned and looked away.
"Mr Finn, this part of the ocean has seen terrible bloodshed. The empire's hero murdered the echidna's first of their species. Then, they betrayed my… they betrayed me and paid the price with their three generals' heads.
The current ones are impostors, poor imitations, but their leader is not. Saul is the second strongest of the echidna species, he always has been. His power is equivalent to the second strongest human, the second strongest elf, or… the second strongest dwarf."