The warriors started jogging at the cruise ship. Kai and his men were already inside and some fresh monsters were already starting to flow out again. Blackbear noticed new cracks along the bottom of the hull where monsters could easily exit from. They had several holes to leave the ship now. Arrows and ranged magic flashed at the mutants.

They entered the ship with warriors equipped with shields leading the way. The tanks shouted out constant taunts going into full defensive mode while groups of bowmen and shaman followed close behind unleashing ranged damage. The war band entered the massive welcoming lobby, but instead of heading up as usual they took a utility ramp in the far left corner downward.

The massive ship had several utility decks below that were rarely seen by the public and they were different than the rest of the ships other levels. The lowest deck had the engines and fuel tanks. The rest were used for storage, laundry, and cleaning, food prep, and the employee housing. The crews living quarters was the first level down. Although the employee living level had been cleared, the ship had had a crew of over a thousand, and every room needed to be rechecked. The war band spread out into teams and quickly started to go through the rooms finding only a few monsters.

After an hour of clearing they were ready to hit a deck below that hadn’t been cleared yet. This was the storage and laundry deck and it looked like a massive warehouse filled with thousands of stacks of luggage on each far end.

Onida put a hand on Blackbear’s arm. “My tracking shows hundreds of creatures in front of us.”

He nodded at her. “OK have the Chief spread the men out in groups to the right and left all the way to the edged of each side and we will walk this deck out in a fire line.” She nodded and left to give the orders.

Blackbear turned to Jax. “It’s time to start your chanting Jax. Weapons ready for the rest of you. It’s about to get ugly down here.” Blackbear pulled the all-weapon out in bow form and slowly started stalking forward. Jax started to murmur out a chant. Smitty quietly growled as his form grew a foot taller. Yepa snarled and went invisible.

A quick started cry from Blackbear’s left showed a warrior being dragged down from four mutant hyena that leaped out from behind a stack of suitcases and then all hell broke loose!

A four foot tall mongoose like creature jumped at Blackbear from a top of a stack of suitcases and was about to land on his head when Yepa materialized mid-air and intercepted it. They landed and twisted on the floor going for each others necks when Jane dashed forward transformed into a Valkyrie.

She stood a bit over six foot tall and was dressed in a form fitted one-piece black body armor with dimly shining blue light that streaked on and off. Her skin had changed to a light gray color with veins visible on her face. Her eyes were shining a vivid blue. She was armed with two very sharp looking short swords.

She pointed her left sword at the creature and a barely visible gray bolt of power shot at the monster. It froze the beast for a second and that was all she needed as she drove her right sword into the body, lifting it into the air and slamming it in the floor twisting the blade until it stopped moving.

Jax grinned and looked at Blackbear. “Oh man, is it wrong that that turned me on so much? Heads up! Incoming!” Jax lifted his Beam rifle and started firing at a giant black goose that was flying in at them. Blackbear raised his bow and shot a fire bolt that tore through the animals mid section.

Monsters of all sizes and variations were now engaging the war band all over the deck. Blackbear’s party formed a ragged vee and started unleashing ranged attacks into the throng. Onida had formed a line of twisting thorned ivy about ten feet in front of them. Smitty was using a crossbow that fired silent blobs of blue energy. Jane shot waves of gray bolts into the mobs. Blackbear switched up and started using ice bolts that slowed the monsters to a crawl.

His personal war band was a wrecking crew, tearing through the pack of monstrosities, but for every single one that they took out, another would pop out from behind the stacks and join the fight. They slowly move forward step by step, never letting up on their concentrated firing, pushing the pack back step by step.

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Most of the animals they fought were native Earth creatures all be it larger varieties and weird mixes of species. A wolf creature with the head of a frog was having its throat torn out by Yepa while a giant squirrel with a kangaroo body was being slashed open by Jane and her whirling twin swords. A Komodo dragon with a lion’s head was lifted and tossed twenty feet away by Smitty smashing it into a pack of four foot tall rabbits with saber teeth.

They were starting to enter a new part of the deck. It was a huge open area filled with giant laundry machines. The fronts of the machines were all open and Blackbear saw a giant chipmunk with blades instead of front arms pop out of one.

“This is a monster factory!” He called out. “Let’s move to that closest one to our right.”

The fight was turning into an all out melee. Blackbear turned his weapon into a staff and started swatting creatures away like a golfer. Smitty had equipped a massive sledge hammer and was crushing monsters three at a time. Onida started casting thorned ivy all around them, pinning mobs to the ground. Jane was a whirling dervish of blades spinning through packs of beasts. Jax stood in the center of them chanting out a regen song that healed minor cuts.

As they neared the first machine Blackbear called out, “Smitty try using that hammer on the washer!” Smitty took a running start and lifted the hammer over his head smashing down with all of his strength on the top of it. A sound like a huge gong went off as Smitty crushed through half of the machine with one swing and then for a few seconds the room went much quieter. All of the monsters seemed to stop and turn towards them.

“Oh shit.” Jax quietly muttered to the party. “Um Bear? You got anything up your sleeve real quick like? I think we are about to get swarmed!”

The room full of monsters turned as one and started to move for his party. Blackbear quickly scanned his mind for the right animal and shouted out “WHITE RHINO!”

Blackbear immediately changed forms into an apex form of the White Rhino weighing over seven thousand pounds! (IT’S CLOBBERING TIME!) “Wait, how does my Rhino know that phrase? Oh nevermind.” Rhinos can reach a speed of thirty-five m.p.h., what most people don’t know is that they can reach that top speed in seconds on a charge. (Crush, Smash, Squash, Mash!) Blackbear tore into the crowd! His hoofs liquefied anything he stepped on. His horn tossed the larger monsters like rag dolls! (HAR HAR! Liddle baby monsters try to run BUT I AM TOO FAST!)

Blackbear reached the other side of the room in seconds leaving a trail of dead mangled bodies behind him. He crashed into a couple of industrial sized dryers on the far side of the room pulverizing them. (Oops, I think I broked that! HAHA!)

The destruction of the machined forced the crowd of monsters to turn back and look at him. They seemed reluctant to attack him though. (Scaredy cats!) He charged back into the crowd, pulverizing everything in his way. Smitty took this lull in the fight and started bashing in machines while the rest of his crew fired ranged damage into the distracted creatures.

The rest of the warriors closed in and started adding in their fire power. Back and forth the Rhino crushed and within five minutes the horde was defeated. Blackbear’s Rhino Stomped his hoof down in victory and let out a howl that sounded like a cross between a broken bugle and a lion’s roar. (I master of ALL!) Blackbear switched back to his human form and dropped to a knee exhausted. The Rhino form had quickly sapped him of energy, something to remember.

He looked up and could see Smitty pointing at something at the other end of the room. Blackbear glanced over and saw a huge machine with tubes running out of it up into the ceiling. “What is that thing?” He called out.

Onida jogged over to him. “Are you alright? Did you take much damage?”

Blackbear looked up and shook his head. “Not much, just some scrapes and bruises. I was moving too fast for them to really get a good shot at me. What is that huge machine?”

Onida chuckled, “Smitty said it’s the main ice machine for this ship. The tubes carry ice all over the place. What I call it though is the boss of this place. If we can disable it without totally destroying it, it will heal over time and make this place into a proper dungeon!”

Blackbear nodded and got up to cautiously move to the machine. The lid popped open and three Grease Monkeys popped out. Smitty raised his hammer, but Blackbear held out a hand stopping him. “Let’s see what happens here.”

The Grease Monkeys loped over to the closest dryer and started to repair it, ignoring all of the warriors. Blackbear laughed. “OK you guys, take those three out. It seems that the horde was the boss’s only defense. Lets bust that up first and then we will clear out the last two decks below. Chief, leave one group here in case anymore repair monsters show.”

The two decks below held an assortment of monsters, but the war band slowly and safely made its way through systematically destroying everything in its path. In the end Chief Kai came to Blackbear. “We lost 15 warriors in the battle.”

Blackbear looked over in slight shock. “I didn’t know that we had lost a single man! How did this happen?”

The Chief lowered his head. “I didn’t want to distract you. It was a battle against hundreds of monsters, It was bound to happen. We can’t save them all. I’m no General Bear...”

Blackbear lowered his head. “I’m just a park ranger man. I shouldn’t be responsible for all of these warriors. What the hell were The People thinking giving me this position?”

Kai nodded in sympathy. “I feel the same... Lets head up to Chu and see if we can stop any more from dying.”

Blackbear wiped the moisture from his eyes and stood up straight. “You’re right, let’s go and save some of our brothers.”