The Devil, The Witch, and The Hydro Pilgrimage (Part 4)

Last time on "The Devil, The Witch, and The Wicked World of Delirith":-

"Well, crap."

Now back to the show:-

The skullies charged straight towards Mako who simply rammed through them all with his Silverbolt. He even threw his ‘familiar’ (the cube turret he bought at the auction fest) into one of the pushing skully trucks through its open window. The cube constructed itself to a turret and opened fire at the driver point blank, as well as every unlucky fellas in there thus freeing the Warstompa from another enemy truck.

Mako charged onwards and this time tried to ram Oculus. The general noticed him however and attempted to slice the witch horizontally in half. Mako noticed the attempt as well and quickly ‘un-digistruct’ his Silverbolt, causing it to disappear and dropping the witch who then slid through between Oculus legs.

Mako disappeared from sight using his invi-cape and immediately followed up with a Boomthorn shot straight to the general. It barely damaged Oculus’s iron-cyborg body though, but Mako’s ‘enchanted’ shell froze nearly half his body with its ice-modified bullet.

Anubrax seized the opportunity and sliced off Oculus’s left arm before delivering a powerful front kick. Oculus was thrown a few feet back but freed from his half-frozen state. A dozen of his underlings charged ahead to cover their leader, and the Sandking was all too welcome to butcher even more fodders.

“Good to see you alive, Mako. I was thinking of planning a funeral for ya once all this is over,” Fyra joked.

“Yeah right! Bet my butt you’re just gonna loot my corpse and leave it to be eaten by skullrudas!”

“Yep! I’ll do just that while mourning! Don’t need a burial to make it a funeral, right?”

Mako wasn’t sure about that last statement, but he ended up shrugging it off as they both had objectives to complete.

“So, we either help Anubrax fight that eyeless dude OR we destroy these last two trucks pushing this trailer!” Mako listed out their options.

“Better we go for the trucks! Anubrax is doing very fine there!” Fyra shouted.

Just like she said, Anubrax was joyfully mowing down the skullies and clashed slashes with the one-armed Oculus.

“Yeah, let's go for the trucks!”

The duo immediately went to work. They approached the nearest truck and quickly shot down defending skullies. Mako shot down the bulletproof window easily with a ‘drill-enchanted’ shell allowing Fyra to blast a powerful fireball that destroyed the entirety of the dashboard as well as killing the driver.

The truck was still stuck deep into the trailer so the duo had to climb inside the trailer and push it off from there. Their work was interrupted however as the truck beside it was mounted with a gatling gunner firing its rounds at them. The duo took cover and brainstormed a way out of this mess when a Bertha suddenly rammed straight to the stuck truck, freeing it off from the trailer.

Von popped out of the Bertha roof and fired his semi-auto shotgun at the gatling gunner. He signaled the duo to get to the next truck as he distracted the gatling gunner in a shootout, eventually killing him with a scattered shot to his face and chest. The duo ran to the next truck, also stuck deep inside the trailer hence enabling them to work their magic from there.

Drill-rounds to destroy the windshield, fireblast to annihilate the dashboard and driver, and a final ram from Von’s Bertha freed the trailer from the last truck. The duo got back up the trailer to tell Anubrax about this, but the Sandking was still in a heated duel with the Skull Clan general.

“All four trucks are gone! We can take control of the wheel now!” Mako shouted from afar.

Hearing this, Anubrax smiled, “YA HEAR THAT BLINDY!? YOU AIN’T GOT SHIT ON US NOW!!”

“Don’t get too cocky now, Sandking. You should always be aware of where you’re going,” Oculus remarked before shoving Anubrax back. He teleported back into his truck and ordered his driver to reverse their vehicle.

“The hell does he mean by that- OH FRACK!!” Anubrax turned around and saw that the Warstompa was heading straight to a narrow valley. Huge rocks were seen rolling down the hills from both sides of the valley while pointy boulders scattered all over across the narrow road.

“GET BACK IN THE TRUCK!!” Anubrax shouted, picking up and carrying both kids before dumping them into the truck through the roof hatch. He jumped down to the driver’s seat and immediately took the wheel.

“Ah, welcome back you three! And it seems you're alive and well, Mako! I was thinking about planning a funeral for ya-”

“Yeah yeah I’ve heard that joke already,” Mako interrupted Beatrix’s dialogue. “Now is it me, or is the left part completely thrashed?”

“They crashed at us at full force Mako, whatcha expect?” Fyra replied.

The Warstompa drove into the narrow valley road with its enemies hot on their trail. Anubrax steered the wheel left and right dodging rolling boulders and falling rocks. When things just couldn’t get any worse, the Warstompa suddenly received a huge bump on its left side once more.

*BTAM!*

“WHAT THE HELL!?-”

“Our battle isn’t over yet, Sandking!” Oculus shouted from his ride.

The armoured truck rode by Oculus rammed their side to the Warstompa repeatedly. The Warstompa did not take much serious damage thanks to its bigger and heavier build, but it did slightly push the tractor-trailer disturbing Anubrax’s steady control on its wheel. They both nearly crashed onto a huge boulder because of this, but both trucks managed to swerve sideways just in time.

Oculus ordered his driver to ram the Warstompa once more. Right as it was about to reach it though, a Bertha suddenly appeared in between and rammed Oculus’s truck to the left.

Both armoured vehicles were equal in power, weight, and speed, placing them both in an unbudging stalemate. It was then however, Von emerged from the Bertha’s right passenger window and placed two small stickable rocket thrusters on the door. The thrusters blasted its blue flames upon a push of a button, giving the Bertha an extra boost to the left side.

This extra boost helped the Bertha push away Oculus’s ride until finally, the Skull Clan general’s truck crashed straight into a huge boulder. The four folks inside the Warstompa cheered, having seen it all through the rear-view mirror and back window.

“That was BADASS Von! Ya both really saved our asses!” Anubrax spoke through the dashboard walkie-talkie.

“The pleasure’s ours, boss,” Von replied simply.

And so, with the Skull Clan’s general defeated, they drove on across the narrow valley to catch up and unite with the main convoy once more. There’s still some enemy vehicles tailing them from behind but they won’t be much of a deal as the Ashura crew madly crash and devour any remaining skullies chasing after their king.

“My radar’s broken, Von. How long till we exit this valley?”

“Less than five minutes, but we have to speed up. I’m seeing a crumbling arched cliff up ahead, about to collapse at any moment,” Von reported, spying said arched cliff through a telescope. “Other than that though, we won’t be having much problems anymore.”

“It’s all smooth sailing from now bos- Oh are you f***ing kidding me!?”

Anubrax and the other three were confused by Von’s remark. Their confusion was quickly answered though as a one-armed, eyeless, badly damaged cyborg jumped down from the roof and onto the Warstompa’s bonnet.

“It ain’t over till it’s over Sandking! AND I AIN’T DONE WITH YA YET!!”

With a maddened grin on his iron-skull face, Oculus punched through the bonnet and to everyone’s horror, ripped out the Warstompa’s engine with his bare arm. The Warstompa immediately slowed down, accidentally bumping the Ashura behind much to Scorch-face and Futbal’s amusement.

“VON! GET IN FRONT OF ME NOW!” Anubrax ordered. The second in command immediately complied as the Bertha was brought in front of the Warstompa. The boot opened with an armed Von, firing his shotgun towards Oculus who seemed unfazed by it.

Seeing this, Anubrax turned to the three, “I’LL BUY TIME FOR YA! GET OUT OF THIS TRUCK AND BOARD VON’S RIDE!” The Sandking got out through the roof hatch first and immediately got pounced on by Oculus. They both were thrown to the backside of the roof while Von jumped on board and greeted the trio.

“Take my hand! I’m getting you outta here!”

“You go first, Miss Beatrix,” Mako said. He and Fyra helped push the elderly mother upwards as Von grabbed and carried her to his Bertha.

After that, Mako gave Fyra a boost to climb out the truck. She offered her hand and grabbed the jumping witch before pulling him out as well. They both jumped on board the Bertha’s boot at the same time.

All that’s left now was Anubrax himself. The Sandking exchanged punches with the greatly damaged Oculus, and though the battle wasn’t as intense as before, the eyeless general could pack quite a punch. If anything, his notoriety seemed to increase now that he had nothing to lose.

Anubrax attempted to slice Oculus in half with his blade only to be swiftly tackled and disarmed. The Sandking struggled to get up with the cyborg skeleton sitting on top of him, clobbering his face with hammer fists punch. In a sudden surge of rage and adrenaline, the Sandking shoved Oculus away with great force. Oculus was thrown nearly a foot away and just as he was about to get up, the eyeless cyborg received a full power uppercut straight to its jaw. He soared a few feet above and was thrown away from the truck as a result.

Sighing a breath of relief, Anubrax wasted no time and went straight for Von’s Bertha. He jogged past the roof hatch when suddenly, a hand grabbed the Sandking’s foot through the hatch and pulled him back into the truck.

Anubrax turned around and to his rage, it was Oculus, still alive but in much worse condition. The eyeless general had apparently hung on the ledge when the Sandking supposedly punched him off the truck. He sneakily climbed down under the Warstompa, and burst through the floor to grab and drag the Sandking back into battle.

Anubrax struggled to free himself only to have his head smashed to the dashboard repeatedly by Oculus. The Warstompa had slowed down greatly at this point as more and more distance was made between it and the moving Bertha in front.

“Anubrax’s in trouble! We need to help him!” Mako shouted.

“Slow down, Tokai! We’re too far ahead!” Von ordered.

“Cliff’s crumbling bad! We slow down any more and we'll be buried or eating rubble!”

“Then what the hell are we gonna do!? Let our king die just like that!” Von angrily replied.

“I’ll try to slow down as best as I can. But we got like half a minute before that cliff falls!”

With that, the Bertha began to slow down and the distance between it and the Warstompa closed in. As close as it was though, it’s still at leaping distance, and the constant deceleration of the Warstompa certainly didn’t help either.

“GO ON WITHOUT ME YA IDIOTS! CLIFF’S GONNA CRUSH YOU ALL!” Anubrax shouted at the walkie-talkie, currently locked in a rear chokehold by Oculus.

“WE AIN’T LEAVING YOU, BOSS! THE CLAN NEEDS THEIR KING!” Von shouted.

The “close” gap between the two vehicles began to widen once more. Tokai couldn’t afford slowing down the Bertha anymore without risking their escape.

“Can’t you fetch him with your bike, boy!?” Von asked Mako.

“Silverbolt ran out of power! It’ll take half an hour for it to recharge!”

As the group argued among themselves on how to save Anubrax, Beatrix observed her son struggling against the eyeless cyborg. Despite being literally in the clutches of death, she noticed her son fighting on desperately to escape, to be there for his people even when all hope was lost.

It reminded the mother of the times when Anubrax constantly got up even after being pushed down (literally) by his father and brothers, yet it was he who inherited the throne in the end for he alone survived through the harshness of Kaandur through strength, grit, and unrelenting will.

As of now, Anubrax’s consciousness was slowly fading away by Oculus’s chokehold, but Beatrix could see his spirit not faltering one bit. This unfaltering spirit was greatly in need by their clan, and it would be wasted just like that should her son die now.

Hardening her heart, Beatrix leapt out of the Bertha much to everyone’s shock. She smashed through the Warstompa’s windshield and crashed right at Oculus’s face, freeing Anubrax from his chokehold.

Oculus got up only to be slammed to the dashboard by a bloodied elder. Angrily, he turned and stabbed Beatrix right at her hips with his metallic hand. The mother didn’t care though as she grabbed the hand and used it to pin down the eyeless cyborg.

“Mom! What the-”

“GET OUT OF HERE NOW, SON! THE CLAN NEEDS YA!!”

“But- I- I’m not leaving you here-”

“FORGET ABOUT ME! THEY DON’T NEED AN OLD CRAPPY WOMAN LIKE ME! THEY NEED A LEADER! THEY NEED A KING!-” Beatrix looked straight into her son’s eyes- “They need you, son. Our people need your kindness, your mercy, your leadership-.”

“Mom….”

Without warning, the Warstompa bumped on a large rock causing it to jump suddenly. Anubrax was thrown out of the truck because of this and was caught just in time by the Bertha.

“WAIT NO! DON’T LEAVE MY MOTHER THERE!!” Anubrax tried to jump out but was stopped and pulled back by Von.

“PLEASE!! MOM!!! MOOOTHEEEER!!!!”

Hysteric cries echoed the valley as the Bertha sped onwards, leaving behind Beatrix and Oculus inside the Warstompa. The arched cliff ahead crumbled hard before finally collapsing completely as predicted by Von earlier. The Bertha crossed under it just in time before the falling rocks crushed them, but the same couldn’t be said about the Warstompa.

Seeing the falling rocks, Beatrix accepted her end and painfully went for the steering while dragging Oculus whose hand still digged deep into her hip. She grabbed the steering and turned to Oculus, to see her son’s enemy one last time. Nothing else but fear was written all over his face.

Satisfied, Beatrix jerked the steering wheel suddenly. The Warstompa swerved violently to the side as one of its wheels hit a large rock. The tractor-trailer flipped completely upside down, crashing onwards straight to the pile of boulders from the crumbled arched cliff. It exploded gloriously, raining the sky with millions of rocks and iron debris.

Every vehicle tailing behind the Warstompa also met an explosive end. They crashed onto each other creating a chain reaction of death and destruction, wiping out remainders of the pursuing Skull Clan. But falling victim to the crash too was the blazing Ashura. Both Futbal and Scorch-face laughed and hollered to the end, not regretting a single bit of everything they’ve done that led them to this point.

In the end, none came out from the valley alive or in one piece. The crash blackened the sands below and covered the earth with flaming debris and dozens of dead bodies. However, one remained alive.

“ *pant* *pant* HEEEEELPPPP!! HELP ME PLEASE!!” Oculus cried out, fear striking the now helpless cyborg. “I CAN’T SEE A THING! I CAN’T FEEL ANYTHING! Please…”

Oculus felt completely helpless. He couldn’t move, he couldn’t feel, he couldn’t smell (okay he never had that sense in the first place) and most importantly, he couldn’t see. The only sense he had left was his hearing, and speaking of hearing, Oculus heard footsteps approaching him. Happiness and hope struck inside his heart thinking that help had arrived.

“Thank you! I don’t know who you are cuz I can’t see ya but thank you! I’ve always feared of being blind again! I can’t stand seeing nothing! I-”

A chainsaw buzz interrupted Oculus’s dialogue.

“No… Don’t tell me-”

“AAASHURAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!”

And now, Oculus had lost his sense of hearing as well.

****

Somewhere in the exiled world of Delirith, somewhere in the ashen land of Boneyard Badlands, the Sand Gang pilgrim finally arrived at the Great Puddle Lake after weeks of perilous journey.

The lake had a small town beside it under the Sand Gang’s sovereign, having it built solely to cater the pilgrim who would visit this place yearly. Stopping by at said town, the pilgrims finally got down from their rides and called in the water tankers to fill their tanks with the lake’s fresh cool water.

Bottles of water were distributed to everyone in which they will either save it for later, or dump it straight on their head there and then. Some of them even went straight to the bathing section of the lake to cool themselves from the scorching heat of the sun.

In the end, it was all worth it for the Sand Gang clan after all the blood and tears shed. With refreshed souls and spiritual rebirth, the clan felt like they could take on the whole world.

“So, I guess this is where we part our ways,” Mako spoke, digistructing his Silverbolt on his side.

“Hold on! You two are still our prisoners! Since when did I declare your freedom!?”

“Wait, I thought we’ve-”

“Naaaah I’m messing with ya! Of course, ya both can go on now with whatever stuff ya both had in mind!”

“But before ya go-” Anubrax signaled one of his men, who attended to them with two medallions in his hand- “this medallion signifies you both as an honorary member of our clan. If you ever crossed path with one my sand-bois in Kaandur and they decide to shoot ya for no reason, just show this to them and they’ll know that you’re one of them.”

“Heh. That means we’re officially part of your crew now, huh?” Fyra remarked.

“Thats..- What I just said..? Anyways, you both oughta get going. Unless of course, you want to stay a bit longer. You both are welcomed here without problem!”

“Nah. We good,” Mako replied simply as he and Fyra got onto the Silverbolt. “Just like you said, we got our own stuff to do!”

With that, the duo rode off into the horizon, venturing onwards deeper into the Boneyard Badlands.

“GOODBYE SANDKING! GOODBYE VON! GOODBYE SAND GANG!” The two voices shouted from a distance, their silhouettes waving their hands before disappearing from sight.

“See you on the flip side, you slippery rascals…” Anubrax whispered under his breath.

~DESERT OF KAANDUR ARC, END~