Fire and Ice

Shinru clean the team again with the blue stone and the devices that was imitating a shower, after that, he sat on one of the mine cars and the team left, they discovered that sector B had a total of six caves, each one of these were distinguished as sector B-1 to B-6, one should assume that sector B-3 should lead to sector C if there was one but things don’t work like that, it could be that this would be the end of the left side of the floor 1432 or that other cave that wasn’t B-3 took them to sector C.

The team was stacking the Pirebas in B-0 and the navigator started talking.

—We’re going to send an investigators team, again, once you’re done with the investigation of the subsectors in sector B.

—What do these things do apart from extracting their bones? —Midori asked

—Their blood has properties that help to combat the toxins from foes outside the fortress, and these have a toxin too, one that can be transformed to make analgesics —the navigator said.

The team moved on to the first sector, sector B1, where there was nothing, just the red stones.

—Maybe this is where they sleep? —said Marin

—No, Pirebas sleep wherever, they don’t need a place for that, maybe they used it for something else, like breeding —said Nazu

—How can you say that with a straight face? —said Midori.

—It’s nature, there’s nothing to be embarrassed of, let’s explore the second one —said Nazu.

The second sub-sector was a ton of meat stacking, there was no skin or trace of anything that was not pure meat.

—They are organized —said Ryu.

—There was probably Haditis in here, but they already got rid of them —said Amano.

—It is hard to tell because the lighting, even with the flashings on, is still red —said Midori.

Yusu starts looking around and sighs just to leave.

The next sector, B-3 was another empty place, they moved to B4, to find another empty room and so on, all the rooms were empty except for B-2, the floor was stable too, the team hit the floor softly to know if there was a hole on it but there wasn’t anything.

—Sector B is complete, along with the sub-sectors —said Ryu.

—Great, I will notify the team to get down there, make sure to explore the right side now.

—Understood.

The team moved to the next side of the floor, Ryu was checking in the map, the whole zone was explored and they were moving forward, they passed Shinru and he waved his hand. After just a few steps towards sector A, the team fell.

—432nd squad! Answer me! 432nd squad!

—We are here —Amano said.

The team looked at his visor and the temperature was now -10 centigrade, the formation of rocks was different, there were a ton of stalagmites and stalactites, the floor was icy and there was a darker sky-blue color.

—You are now on the 1569th floor, you are on unknown territory, put the trackers on the side to make it easy to send you back to the 1432 floor, we are sending a driver already to the main lobby of the floor, be careful.

The team started to search for the walls, when they turn around to seek for one, there wasn’t it was a giant space, but the ceiling wasn’t that big, just a few meters taller than Ryu

—How long is this place? —Midori said.

—I don’t know, but let’s start by searching for a wall, the trackers, it doesn’t matter if it’s just one, we should go to place it together, just the glimpse of the area of where we are would be enough to reveal where we are —Ryu said

—That’s correct, please proceed —the navigator said—. Although we have your exact location is better if we have exactly the location of where you are right now, this floor has only been explored on the right side, but different from the others, this one had eight different ways to start.

—And it’s better to know if we need to head north or south —said Nazu.

—Let’s start moving then —Ryu said.

The team started to move forward, the floor had that crystalline sound when they moved, like stepping on broken crystal, Ryu stopped the team and he deployed his shield. Everyone got his weapons out and they saw a frog jumping in the middle of the room, a pale one, with black points on it’s back and yellow eyes

—RYU, PROTECT THEM!

The eyes of the frog changed to red and Ryu deployed his shield to protect everyone in there, the next that sound was a ton of projectiles getting stabbed and then fall on the floor, spikes made of ice were falling from Ryu’s shield and when he made it small again, the frog was moving his head from left to ride, having a ton of spikes on the holes that were on its back.

—A Rackuin, be careful, if one of their spikes touched any of you it would paralyze you for a long time —the navigator said.

A blade flew across the room and the Rackuin jumped, sticking itself on the ceiling, Sakura clicked her tongue as the Rackuin was changing the color of its eyes again. Marin was about to shoot it but Ryu blocked its vision, with his shield, one more time the spikes fell from the shield of Ryu, except for one, hitting him on the foot.

Everyone looked worried at Ryu and he was slowly falling on his knees, he held his shield but this one was falling as the second passed.

Amano and Yusu took Ryu’s shield with him.

—Can you still talk, Ryu?! —Amano said

—I… can’t…

—We are sending an extra team to help you —the navigator said —. We are sending the vaccine with them.

Everyone was hesitating on taking the lead, until Yusu opened his mouth.

—There’s no time for this, Sakura, Midori, Marin, you will be our attack, Nazu, make sure to take care of Ryu, Amano and I will be holding the shield of Ryu, for now take cover, NOW!

The Rackuin was about to shoot again and everyone got covered holding the shield on the floor.

—Yasu…

—Don’t worry, I would not do something reckless.

Yasu smiled and looked at the trio of shooters.

—That thing will jump once it gets shot, so our chance is the next one…

The frog started to shake its head again, Marin was the first on taking a peek and shooting once with both of her weapons, the frog jumped to the ground and the next turn was of Midori, he shooted the ground and the frog jumped again, Marin started shooting a lot of shots out of her pistols and the frog change its eyes to red, just to get stabbed in the middle of it’s abdomen by Sakura’s blade.

The frog made a sound and it was stoked on the wall a few meters.

Everyone was going to the wall, Nazu having Ryu holding on to her arm and leaving the shield behind.

There was nothing but a giant wall that had the poor Rackuin on the wall.

—Great job, 432nd squad, collected that one, it would be good to as anesthesia and the chefs in here prepare a very good Rackuin stew. The team that we were about to send was cancelled, the driver has a pair of vaccines to help your leader.

Amano was placing the tracker and Nazu was seeing Ryu, he was paralyzed but he could still move his eyes.

—The Rackuin poison it’s not dangerous, it would be gone off after a day, but the real threat it’s the piercing of the spikes, I would recommend check on your leader’s foot before heading to the entrance… north, you should head to the north, be careful, that Rackuin was not the only threat that we have here or the last one of them.

Everyone nodded and they started by removing the footwear of Ryu.

—Only that?! —Midori said.

—That’s just a scratch —Nazu said.

—If this takes down Ryu, I don’t want to imagine what would happen if the entire spike got into the skin —Amano said.

—The longer the spike is on the victim the longer the period is, the penetration of the spike is only to deal damage, the spikes only had a small portion of the venom —the navigator said.

—At least he’s not going to bleed out, let’s go to the entrance —Yasu said.

Nazu took Ryu, dragging him, the team was putting trackers now and then. The path to the entrance was a little curved but, in the end, they made it safely, making and incomplete map with a feeling that something was watching them, maybe there was something in there, or maybe there were just paranoia for what just happen, either way, they were all now safe.