After a bit more rumbling, the excamole emerged, holding a
large boulder in one of its hands. After winding up, the animal hurled the rock
at the party, aiming to flatten them in one blow. Fortunately, Yuchauzh was quick to act, using his weight to roll
forward before holding his log up like a shield to deflect the incoming
projectile. Though he was pushed back quite a bit, he was still able to prevent
the rock from doing any real harm.
"Hah!" he laughed, "Nice try, fool!"
Growling in frustration, the mole jumped up and dove back
into its hole, causing more quakes to shake through the cave as it burrowed a
new tunnel. When it emerged, instead of positioning itself away from the group,
it appeared right in front of Kantuta and Siquioce, holding its razor-sharp
claws up in preparation to strike.
"Ah!" Kantuta cried, "Watch out!"
Heeding his teammate's warning, Siquioce swayed his body out
of the way with Kantuta, allowing the two of them to narrowly avoid being
cleaved in two. Seeing that the excamole's claw was stuck in the rock, Yuchauzh
smiled and raised his log in the air before jumping towards the burrower.
"Haha! Way to leave yourself open, bozo! Here I—HUH?!"
To Yuchauzh's absolute shock,
the excamole ducked into its hole just in time to evade Yuchauzh's rolling
attack, leaving the orc to crash onto the ground.
"Agh...what the heck, man?! How
can such a big lug move so fast?!"
Before Yuchauzh could recover,
the mole reemerged and grabbed the orc by his legs, slamming him against the
ground multiple times before hurling him against the wall with a mighty thud.
"Yuchauzh!" Siquioce cried,
looking back at his friend, "Are you okay?"
"...Yeah..."
Despite Yuchauzh's words, Siquioce
could tell by his quieter-than-usual voice that he was not, in fact, okay.
Clenching his webbed hand into a fist, the Samanian looked up at the excamole, letting
out a huff of anger.
"If only I had some water. If I
did, I could probably nourish Yuchauzh's log with an Aqua Shot..."
With its attack finished, the
subterranean creature once again returned to its hidey-hole and dug some more,
this time, however, instead of emerging a few seconds later, the mole burrowed
for quite a while, eventually causing rocks to fall from the ceiling like rain.
Fearing for her life, Kantuta dodged
back and forth frantically, keeping her eyes on the air as she avoided the
falling stones. On the other hand, the less agile Siquioce was relegated to dropping
to the ground and flopping away from the descending rocks, which only allowed
him to narrowly avoid getting crushed.
"My word!" Kantuta exclaimed,
looking around at all of the crumbled stones, "This is some serious power!"
"Hnngh...yeah." Siquioce groaned
as he got up, "Me and my bird were almost done for! If we don't hurry up and
take care of this foe, we could end up flatter than smoothfish..."
At that moment, Yuchauzch came
limping into the scene, holding his arm as he looked up at Siquioce and
Kantuta.
"Just wait till I land one good
hit on that mangy maroon. He won't know what hit him."
Kantuta shook her head, "As if
you could ever land a blow on that animal. Excamoles are already very aware of
their surroundings, but this one appears to have especially heightened senses.
The only one of its senses that may be deficient is its..."
Kantuta suddenly gasped, her
eyes wide with realization. Chuckling to herself, she turned to face Yuchauzch
with a knowing smile.
"I have an idea. Yuchauzch,
prepare to attack!"
"Huh?" He tilted his head, 'I
thought you just said there's no point."
"Forget that. Just do as I say,
orc."
Siquioce then spoke up, "But
first..."
As the excamole stayed in the
ground, Siquioce raised his arms up in a Y position before waving them towards
his chest. While he was still not very used to using this technique, he
nonetheless managed to gather enough mana to release in a magical burst,
shouting "Well!" as he drew an arc with his hands and released green liquid
from his head.
Being covered in the healing
fluid, Yuchauzch scrunched his face up in disgust, staring with disdain at the
substance on his skin. Despite his aversive feelings, the orc soon found
himself full of energy as his wounds miraculously healed.
"There." Siquioce said, "You
should be good to go now."
"Ugh...yeah, I can see that."
Yuchauzh held his log at the ready, "Let's just hurry up and beat this clown
before I can think about what you just did."
Thankfully for Yuchauzh, it was
not long before the excamole rose up near the trio and wound up its right paw
in preparation to strike. Seeing this, Yuchauzch rose his log up and ran
towards the mole, ready to lay a beatdown on it. Predictably, the animal sought
refuge in its pit, diving down before rising back up and preparing a
counterattack. Kantuta, however, was quick to act, holding her staff in front
of her as she gathered magical energy into its tip.
"I've got you now! Have a taste
of my Flash spell!"
Once enough light energy was
accumulated into her stick, Kantuta slammed it forward in a striking motion,
causing a ball of light to fly into the excamole's small eyes. Covering its
face with its paws, the fuzzy fiend let out a loud screech as it writhed around
in pain.
"Ha!" Kantuta laughed, "That's
how it's done! Aren't I just the smartest?"
"Yeah, you sure are." Yuchauzch
remarked as he got up, "I only had to go through another crash landing to get
your stupid plan to work."
"Oh hush." Kantuta pointed
forward, "Just focus on attacking the excamole! Don't waste any time!"
Yuchauzh rolled his eyes, "Geez,
bossy much? Anyway, Siquioce, let's get to work."
Nodding, Siquioce hopped as fast
as he could over to the enemy and began assaulting it, biting the digger with
his sharp teeth while Yuchauzh smashed its face in with his tree trunk. With
the coordinated efforts of the duo, it was not long before the excamole let out
another cry of despair and fell forward in defeat.
Seeing that their opponent was
down, Siquioce and Yuchauzh stepped away from the mole, taking a moment to
catch their breath. After a few seconds, the orc let out a sigh of relief and
held his hand out for a high-five.
"Up high, Siquioce! We trounced
that chump!"
Smiling widely in excitement,
Siquioce began to raise his hand to meet Yuchauzh's before a shocking
development stopped him in his tracks. Feeling the color drain from his face,
the Samanian slowly turned to face the excamole, who was starting to stir. After
a moment, the mammal gradually cracked its eyes open, revealing a pair of
eerie, glowing, purple eyes.
"Uh...guys?"
Staring directly at the
adventurers, the mole made a low growling sound that soon escalated into a
full-on roar as it spread its paws out. Overwhelmed by a primal anger, the
miner jumped up once more, held its stubby arms together, and began rotating at
an ever-increasing speed, staying airborne with a supernatural power as it
became more and more like a drill.
"Oh, Peron," Kantuta took a step
back, staring up at the floating mole with wide eyes, "What...what is this?!"
After a second longer of
spinning, the excamole finally released its potential energy and boosted
forward like a rocket towards Yuchauzh and Siquioce, prompting them both to jump/lurch
out of the way. After missing its initial targets, the spelunker dove straight
into the hard stone below them, swimming through it like a professional
athlete.
Although everything seemed to be
relatively okay, what happened next was far from pleasant. Feeling the ground
rumbling from beneath her, Kantuta, who was standing a good distance away, found
herself struck by an attack from below courtesy of the reemerging excamole.
"KANTUTA!" Siquioce cried,
"No!!"
Though the elf was only grazed,
she was still very much hurt, tumbling to the side and rolling for a bit before
coming to a stop many feet away. Looking out at her, Siquioce's heart sank;
Kantuta wasn't moving.
"No...Kantuta,
I—"
His words were cut off by the
sight of the enemy focusing its sights on him, pointing its dangerous claws
straight at the fish person. Shaking his head, Siquioce trusted his instincts
and hopped away, barely avoiding facing the same fate as his friend.
"Darn it." Siquioce grumbled as
he felt the ground shake some more, "He can't get away with this! I've gotta
avenge my friend...but how?"
As the leader went over his
options, his eyes drifted to the hole that the excamole had just leapt out of,
noticing that there was a small pool of water in it. Feeling his heart leap in
his chest, he quickly made his way towards the liquid before cupping his hand
to his mouth and calling out to his ally.
"Yuchauzh! Come over here!"
The orc, who was busy trying to
figure out where his opponent was, turned to face his friend and frowned.
"I'm kinda in the middle of
something, here."
"Just come on!"
Realizing that there was no
point in arguing, Yuchauzh gave the ground one last wary look before running as
fast as his short legs could manage and stopping next to his superior. Sensing
the orc's presence, Siquioce jumped into the pool and began drawing in water.
"Here's the plan: first, I'm
going to use Aqua Shot on your trunk to strengthen it. Once it's all healthy, I
want you to use it to block the excamole's next attack. Hopefully, the thick
vines will be enough to stop it."
"...Wait, what?" Yuchauzh held
his prized possession close to his chest, "Hold on, that's crazy talk. What if
it gets destroyed? What if I die?"
Siquioce froze up. His mate had
a point. What if the vines weren't enough to stop the mole's onslaught? What if
Yuchauzh ended up getting impaled? These worrying thoughts swirled through
Siquioce's head, causing him to almost reconsider his plan. However, despite
his fears, he knew that there were hardly any better options.
"...You'll just have to trust
me. If you happen to fall...I'll gladly go down with you."
Hearing this, Yuchauzh took a
step back in utter shock, his expression of disbelief hidden behind his mop of
hair.
"Siquioce, you..."
Their conversation was
interrupted by another quake, signaling the return of the manic miner. Sensing
this, Siquioce knelt down and sucked in water through his mouth before facing
his ally.
"No dime for dalk! Ged ready!"
Yuchauzch stared at Siquioce for
a second before nodding and placing his log in front of him, waiting to receive
the shot. Wasting no time, Siquioce gave him exactly what he desired, emptying
his cheeks as he sprayed nourishing water all over Yuchauzh's floral weapon.
Just as the log's vines began to grow, the excamole flew out of the ground,
heading straight towards the orc.
"Yuchauzh, now!"
Making the most of his reflexes,
Yuchauzh spun around to face the titanic talpid and held his tree trunk up like
a tree trunk, letting out a powerful "HAAH!" as he fought against the mole's
pushing and spinning force. To his pleasant surprise, Yuchauzh found that the
thick vines on his log quickly halted the animal's rotating movement with their
tangling composition. The mole was stuck!
"Yes!" Siquioce cheered, "We did
it! We...wait, what do we do now?!"
Yuchauzh chuckled, "Oh, I'll
tell you exactly what."
Gripping his trunk with both
hands, the orc spun the excamole around like a professional hammer thrower,
rotating it faster and faster before slamming it down multiple times on the
ground, wearing a triumphant smile all the while.
"Hahaha! Boot's on the other
foot now, you furry freak! It's payback time!"
Relishing in the feeling of
revenge, Yuchauzh did another 180 with the excamole before finally putting it
out of its misery and making his trunk's vines unlatch, causing the creature to
fly into another wall. After making an impact on the rocky wall, the burrower
wobbled in place for a good few seconds before making a pitiful whine and
falling flat on its pale belly.