As Rick and Artemis observed more, they soon realized other rustic constructions and buildings all over the place in a somewhat disorganized way. Other than the beasts marching towards the exit like a slightly organized force, howl's came from the top of the fortress where a giant blueish-green lion.
[This!] Artemis yelled in his head, and Rick turned to have a look at that lion. From the density of energy it had, this beast was certainly the leader as well as a third stage elemental beast. However there was something else bothering him.
[This isn't a military base, but a city. Those mindless beasts had made their own city.](Rick)
Since back in elementary school, everyone was taught how primitive and ruthless. Hunting and feeding on humans without caring about their own species, living like wild creatures without a hint of pride, compassion or love for anything other than their themselves. Even the beast gods weren't as united as it seems and have fought more times they can remember in the past thousand years.
This city didn't have a strong source of energy, with its greatest expert being that third stage lion over there. Yet, it seems different species of beasts had united to the point of having their own city. Back in school, the teachers told him and the other kids of how bad it would be if the beasts stopped living in the woods to organize and make their own cities. That in a few years, even the space won't be the limit for their advancement.
[Artemis, stay back. That lion is not normal, even if we take out the beasts inside here I'm not sure if we can beat it.]
[Then what should we do? Stay here and wait for our forces to be wiped out.] Artemis' voice had a hint of anxiety, if they waste too much time there was no way to know how bad things could get. And this was just with an army of low-level beasts attacking them. Rick was a bit nervous and scared when something deep within his mind calmed him down and an idea sprouted in his mind.
[This is it!] Rick nearly jumped high while feeling satisfied with his idea when Artemis pulled him back with one hand and covered his mouth with the other.
[Shhhh!](Artemis)
[Oh, right sorry. I think we have a way of helping the other without doing anything stupid, have you bought your gas mask?](Roderick)
[Huh?] Artemis was startled, then she picked a black collar from her uniform and put on her neck, soon it grew and covered her head as a black gas mask with red eyes.
[Good.] Rick was happy with the way she acted without questions and put on his own gas mask. Then he turned to look at his artificial right arm, or more precisely, the grenade launcher on his wrist.
[This is a nano-grenade launcher. Each grenade is as tiny as you can imagine and I have with me lots of nano-sized sleeping grenades.] Rick then took three disks full of compressed gas. He didn't even have to tell the rest when Artemis eyes were shining. She could see what he wanted to do and started to feel excited. Then he handed two of the disks over to her, and told her what to do before leaving on his own, but not before they decided to meet on the same point when they finished.
Plating the nano-sized bombs all over the city, he loaded two explosive-type grenades and shot on both borders of the hole in the ground. Luckily these beasts didn't have high senses and acted like the blind npcs in a stealth game. Then he progamed all the sleeping and explosive bombs to explode on the time he pressed one of the two buttons on his launcher, one for the sleeping bombs and another for the explosive bombs.
[I'm done, let's return to the meeting point.](Artemis)
[Me too. See you there.](Roderick)
Returning to the dark corner of the city behind a stone hut, Rick saw the thousands of tiny energy dots all over the city. There was only one thing he didn't tell Artemis, to activate the bombs he had to be in a distance of three hundred meters which means he had to be in the city in order to activate it and they wound only fifteen seconds to make their escape before he blew the entrance. Only when they reunited did he explain the drawbacks of his plan and Artemis frowed.
Only when they reunited did he explain the drawbacks of his plan and Artemis frowed. Even with her speed, it was impossible to leave the city with much more than 300m of area in just fifteen seconds. Just the area of the city was about 2300 square meters. Yet, she turned to Rick, if he knew all of this, then it was possible he thought of something already.
Picking up Artemis on his arms, he turned to stare at the city one last time. Seeing a small group of small beasts playing tag in distance made his expression soften. Then he pressed the first button and vanished in a streak of lightning. By the time any of the beasts noticed him, he was already shot through the hole in the ground like a comet before... Boom!
Clouds of green miasma spread through the entire underground city. The army of beasts close to leaving the city noticed the comotion and returned to see what was happening just before another explosion took place sealing the exit. With their power, they could easily open another path, but with the gas in this closed space there was no way for them to escape and feel asleep. Even their leader realized the enemy attack was too late and it fell from the fortress walls with its eyes closed.
Rick on the other side was cutting through the sky like a comet before landing on the soft snow.
[Ahh, this hurts!] Feeling pain on his muscles and bones, Rick noted he would never do it again. He released all his reserves of energy from his feet in a single second giving him incredible speed, he was the first human rocket in the history of Eden.
[Don't do this ever again without telling me first.] Lying on his chest, Artemis bit his shoulders. It was a big surprise he could do something like that. Rick tried to get up, but his body was aching a lot and he had to give up leaving any time soon.
Seeing he wasn't able to speak, Artemis raised her tiny head and both eyes locked for a second before both started laughing out loud. They didn't know where it came from, both just felt they had to.
"I finally found you both." With another voice resounding in the endless snow from above, Artemis eyes rose upwards only to see Ares, with his body full of scratches on minor injuries flying towards them.
"I'm sorry for interrupting your moment. However, all this battle was nothing other than a distraction. The Flame Union has started a large-scale attack on Eden as we talk."
"What?!" Artemis and Rick quickly got up with faces full of horror.