*(mood song: "Semisonic - Closing Time")
They assembled a big army, Khroom and other big soldiers being the one's responsible of herding the cannon fodder army forward, now the fire tribe soldiers just armed with spears and shields, their armors now being used by the shadow claw and rebel soldiers in the back that were now armed with modern heavy weapons, from poison launchers to big sodium grenade launchers and hand cannons, carts with supplies and big ballistas pulled by big chained tunnelers, there were six tunnelers on the royal stables so he had left two pregnant females up on the surface, steadily elevating them with balloons on a platform so that they wouldn't explode from the inside, and used the last four now, they would be useful to carry things around so it was worth it to raise them, and he was also interested in their shells and mandibles.
From the fire tribe, they marched south, looking for the location of the blockade, finally reaching it after three days of travel.
The rocks were accumulated in the tunnel, and he proceeded to use a secret weapon he had brought along a long drill, he used it to drill a hole on the rock wall, and then he went to one of the carts pulled by one of the tunnelers, and on it was a high pressure container full of the most toxic poison mix he had managed to make, it would even eliminate the oxygen in the water so as long as they needed to breathe, any possible monster would die, it took one hour for the container to empty completely, after which he sealed the hole and waited, with luck anything at the other side would be dead or at least weakened.
After half a day with no movement from the other side, they drilled the wall and took off the rubble, a slight black tinge in the water coming out from the poison momentarily and then the water from their side started flowing in, and taking the poison away, seeing that Erik grew concerned [did you see that? there's a current, so they might have an exit in there... that water is going somewhere...]
Rose: [well, with so many things living in there, it's impossible to contain it completely anyway ¯\_(ツ)_/¯]
Erik: [...true... do you detect anything?]
Rose: [let me check.... no, nothing but... don't let your guard down, if these supposedly monsters were created then we don't know what they are capable of (｡>﹏<｡)]
Erik nodded as he signaled a guard, this giving a command as the cannon fodder was pushed in first, Kraktar looking back one last time hatefully at Erik as he was pushed in, surprised gasps soon echoing as they used chemical lamps to illuminate the interior.
Then Erik and the others went in and were all equally surprised, black tentacles lined the walls, twitching and struggling as if they were in pain.
Erik: [...I'm so glad this is an avatar body...]
Rose: [try cutting one?]
Erik nodded and approached one, taking Kraktar's two handed sword as he and swinging it in a wide arc, cutting lots of tentacles, a thick black fluid coming out and sliding down the wall, not even mixing with the water as the vines on all the walls twitched way harder.
Erik: [it's denser than water but still a liquid... I might take a sample later... I don't really wanna touch it...]
Then Shana that was watching nearby asked "what are these things?" with a concerned face.
Erik shook his head as he answered "I'm not sure... but it should be dangerous so no matter what don't touch it!" shouting the last part for everyone to hear.
They kept advancing as a portion of the army remained to guard the entrance, lots of explosives set just in case, as they kept advancing some of the tentacles started seeming more alive, the cannon fodder in front cutting them, and after a bit landed in one of them they finally got to see the effect, black lines started appearing on his caparace as tine black hair like tentacles grew over his body, talking then about hearing voices in his head as Erik cut off his head before anything else changed, but... it was too late... as the corpse hit the floor, dozens of nearby tentacles pierced it, pumping their fluid inside as the corpse rose back up again, this time an anemone like mushroom with a black oozing mouth growing where his head used to be.
The entire army was freaked out, *BOOM!* the silence broken as one of Rose's puppets blew it with a shot, the shell having become seemingly fragile was easily blew up by her shot, and the corpse fell again, this time though the tentacles started eating it like leeches, sucking out its insides, and leaving only an empty blackened shell that easily crumbled too.
It took some time to pacify the army and make the cannon fodder advance after that, using the acid and poison spewers all over when the tentacles got close, disintegrating them into oblivion.
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Almost an entire day passed as they continued to go down thanks to Rose scanning the path ahead and guiding them, pushing on with their exhausted bodies and not resting much to avoid the black fluid that thankfully slid of armors with no effect, and no shadow claw warriors were lost as they continued thanks to that, but casualties kept occurring amongst the cannon fodder though, as the tentacles kept becoming more active the deeper they went, some even spewing black spines that pierced those in front, one of them going for Erik, but Khroom quickly blocked it with a tower shield he was carrying, his spear flashing as he cut one tentacle after another that got too close to the elders, turning back and saying "stay behind me my queen!" sneaking a glance at Timberly and murmuring "queens..."
The blue and white of their lights reflected on the tentacle walls as they went deeper and deeper, and they started seeing some signs of battle, dozens of empty suits of armor and weapons just lying around as they went deeper, most of them too damaged to use and covered in the thick black fluid.
Rose: [there should be way more corpses than these though...]
Erik turned a corner and answered [ that's because they aren't dead...] there they saw a big wrinkled crabman stuck to a wall, lots of tentacles connected to his body.
It saw them approach and his eyes illuminated "oh, visitors! what brings you to my house? do you mind..." he pointed to a nearby armor on the floor "I was having a conversation with my wife you see pfft haha.. don't be a meany darling, you will have to excuse her, she's only rude to strangers so-"
Erik interrupted him pointing a gun at his forehead though "who the fuck are you? why do you talk while having tentacles stuck to your body? and lastly... that wife of yours... not even the corpse is left..."
The crabman seemed to freeze and then struggled to look at the tentacles and then the corpse, his breathing speeding up "AAAHHHHH! What is this?! since when?! my wife... it hurts! IT HURTS!!!!! PLEASE-"
*BOOM!* but Erik then blew up his head, ending his suffering "seems like we wouldn't get anything out of him" the tentacles in the walls seemed to tremble in anger, but he took a needle from his belt and injected a powerful venom into a nearby one, making them shrivel and calm down, he then looked back and said "let's keep going"
They found many more struggling crab men and women stuck to the walls, but they were all crazy so they killed them and kept going, the tentacles inside them having replaced lots of their organs meant they would die if they were separated from the walls.
Erik: [this isn't good... it's too easy...]
Rose: [I have an idea what it's doing... letting us go deeper and deeper so we can't escape, the moment we show any signs of turning back... it probably will be over then...]
Erik: [well, it works for me...]
Rose: [what about your crab subjects? (¯―¯٥)]
Erik: [...we will do what we can] looking at the nearby Khroom and shadow claw soldiers [...the mission comes first, those essential have already been evacuated too..., being kind to your enemy is just hurting oneself in the end... are we close?]
Rose: [well don't worry too much, we are almost there]
As she said that the next path started getting brighter and brighter as they came to a big cavern, a bright red light covering the entire place as lava waterfalls covered the walls and volcanic chimneys covered the floors in a stone forest, and both the ceiling and floor also covered in fire mushrooms and other animals that either fed on the minerals in the water or the bacteria and microorganisms that feed on them, hundreds of large boulders also in the cavern, while in the middle of the cavern a black metallic building waited for them.
The heat was too intense though and the cannon fodder couldn't go further away than the entrance and the cool current coming from behind or they would be cooked alive.
So Erik looked at one of Rose puppets and nodded, it instantly bolting forward at top speed as thrusters on his back made it faster, some parts of its shell were already whitening due to the heat when it was halfway when suddenly... *SNAP!* the boulders turned out to not be boulders as one of them unfolded into an enormous crabman 6 meters tall, its big pincer snapping the puppet in half and then picking it up to a big mouth that opened on the rock.
Erik: [...guess they don't appear on your radar?]
Rose: [...they don't... but don't worry, that meal will be an explosion of flavor ~ (◉ω◉)]
*BOOM!* at that instant, the puppet exploded inside the giant crab, making its thick shell crack and bleed profusely as it fell dead to the ground.
Erik whistled seeing that "that a really thick shell, that bomb could have blown a tank to bits"
Inky: "there are bombs inside them?"
Erik looked at her "thought you would ask what's a tank... well yeah, they have bombs inside them so... don't shoot at them?"
They all cautiously took some distance from the other puppets as they noticed nearby boulders to the dead crab unfold into equally gigantic crab men and slowly walk near it, their pincers easily cutting through the thick shell and chewing on the while meat under it, pushing each other aside as they competed to eat first.
Erik: "well, they look pretty dumb at least... so... let's send two more I guess..."
Two puppets then charged at fast speeds avoiding the fake boulder crab men and finally arrived at the entrance of the forge.
Erik: [what do you see Rose, can you open it?...] there was no response as he looked to one side and saw one of the puppets had a dumbfounded expression on its face [what's wrong?]
Rose: [...well... we might need to go back... it seems... like we will need the cube to open this door... and it's integrated into your power armor right now...]
Erik: [...that ain't funny... going back now? can't you force it open?]
Rose: [ ...I will try... ¯\_(´_ゝ`)_/¯ ]
He then saw the two puppets seemingly pulling at the lock in the door, but... it didn't last, as a turret glowing in a bright cyan color, emerged on top of them, quickly flashing a cyan light blast at them, a big explosion of bubbles occurring as they were both pulverized.
Erik touched his chin as he thought "maybe we could try the secret facility and access the forge that way?"
Rose: *that could work but... I just noticed that... we are surrounded already*
Erik and everyone's faces paled as they looked back to the tunnel, clacks and all kinds of sounds getting closer.
Erik: "...we are fucked...."