HA\LF: Dead nor Alive

“This is different from the last time I got here, the whole place looks like a mess here,” Archie said as he looked down at the ecosystem of the cave under the island. All the trees got destroyed, the hills were gone, and there was nothing else but dead trees and dead parasites. “Do you know what happened here? Could it be the King parasite came here?” Archie asked.

“I’m not sure, I can’t tell because I can’t feel anything in this place anymore. It looks like everything that lived here has abandoned the place because of something, and that might be because of the king parasite,” Eve answered as she shook her head and shrugged her shoulders.

“Want to check it out? If you say there’s no sign of the king parasite, then that means it should be safe here, right?” Archie asked.

“Sure, let’s go and look for something and hope we encounter something,” Eve said as she spread her wings and flew away first, and then Archie followed her from behind.

They flew around for hours, but they couldn’t find anything interesting at all. Not even a single live creature could be seen from up there, and then they decided to find the highest place in the cave which was the mountain, or at least what was left of it.

“There’s nothing at all, this is weird, and not to mention there’s not even a single sign King parasite anywhere. There’s only mean one thing, right? We should go deeper into that hole over there,” Archie said as he pointed at the giant hole at the other side of the cave.

“Are you sure you want to go there? You might regret it,” Eve asked as she raised her eyebrows and looked at Archie.

“Why? Oh, right, down there is a place where all the King parasites are gathered, huh? I guess we should head back and just end it here. Maybe I will ask the Wind Witch to check what’s down there, and see if there’s one of the King parasites that went to the surface back then down there,” Archie said as he rested his hands on his waist.

“Yeah, let’s go back home, I miss Elena already,” Eve replied as she nodded her head.

“Be quiet, if can, hold your breath,” Archie said as he held Nova’s shoulders and pulled her closer to him. Eve was staring at Archie and was a bit displeased that he put another woman so close to him. “You don’t want all those parasites to come out because they’re at least one close to King-type parasite,”

“Are you serious?” Nova asked quietly as she stared at Archie with anxiety written on her face.

“Yeah, so let’s be quiet and start to find a way down,” Archie looked at Eve and nodded his head.

Eve led the way with Archie right behind her while Nova was on the right side and hugged the wall because she didn’t want to be the first one to get attacked by the parasite.

The three of them walked down the muddy ground and it was quite hard to stay quiet with the sound of their boots stepping on the wet mud. Thankfully, the sound of the parasites and waterfalls was loud enough to cover their presence, and also it was thanks to Eve’s aura that made the parasites wouldn’t care about whoever came from the hole.

The forest was right in front of them and Nova hesitated to enter the forest because she didn’t want to be down there in the first place. On the other hand, Archie and Eve entered the forest so casually which made Nova have no other option but to follow them because it was safer for her to stay close to them than to have to climb back up to go back.

Archie clenched his right fist and raised it to signal both of them to stop moving. They walked closer to Archie and looked in the direction that he was looking, they saw a parasite that looked like a bat with four arms and legs eating something on top of the tree.

“We need to deal with that or we are going to be stuck here,” Eve said as she put her hand on Archie’s shoulder. “It has quite sharp hearing like a bat and its eyes are just an accessory so you don’t have to be worried,”

“Let me deal with it then,” Archie replied as he looked at his surroundings and made sure there was no parasite around.

Archie quietly grabbed a pebble on the ground, he looked at the tree on the other side of them. He threw it and hit the tree trunk, and it was enough to attract the parasite’s attention and flew toward the tree trunk so quickly.

Archie wanted to know how fast it move and what it was capable of, he knew that the claws and the fangs were dangerous so he needed to be careful with those. He looked down and grabbed another pebble then threw it as hard as he could and right on the parasite’s head.

The pebble shattered into tiny pieces and the parasite turned its head toward them. Archie unsheathed his sword and flicked the blade to attract the parasite’s attention.

The parasite flew toward him and was ready to tear his body into pieces but Archie dashed forward as he swung his sword vertically at the parasite. He cut the parasite into half like paper and killed it in an instant before the parasite could even call for help.

Archie looked at his arm and noticed the change in his strength, he was quite amazed and grateful that he got exposed to the radiation. He thought that he would be overpowered by the parasite’s mass and momentum but he wasn’t even get pushed back when he clashed with the parasite.

“Wow, that sword is really amazing,” Nova said as she looked at the clean cut on the parasite’s body.

Eve chuckled and looked at Archie. “Yes, of course, it was all because of the sword,” she said mockingly.

Nova stood next to the parasite’s body and it was as big as an elephant, she didn’t believe something that big could move really fast. The more she thought about what kind of parasites live down there, the more scared she became.

As they went deeper into the forest, a loud roar echoed throughout the whole place and it scared all the parasites. Nova looked up since she heard wings flapping right above her and to her surprise, the same parasite that Archie killed back then, there were hundreds of them above her.

“What was that?!” Nova asked as she leaned her body toward Eve,

“That’s the one we are looking for, let’s go,” Eve said as she walked deeper into the forest with Nova kept clinging to her arm.

“You know, that’s really a bad idea, right? Knowing those parasites were running away from the roar, we should do the same,” Nova replied as she kept looking up and watching the parasites fly away.

“That’s exactly why we have to go there because the parasites are running away and that means the only danger that we are going to deal with is that thing,” Eve answered and started to walk faster.

Nova sighed and trembled in her breath. “I hate it when you’re right about it,” she said.

Eve just chuckled and kept on walking with Archie following from behind them.

As they went deeper into the forest, they saw a river and Eve decided to walk over it because there was a hill not far in front of them. She wanted to get a better look at the area and needed to find a sign of the King-type parasite.

“Alright, we can relax a bit here because this place should be the safest place in this whole cave,” Eve said as she looked at the mountain on the other side of the cave. “The sound must be coming from that mountain over there,”

“You want us to go over there? That’s like, two hours of walking,” Nova said as she looked at the mountain. “Fuck it, let’s do it. It’s not like we have another choice,”

After they rested for half an hour, they went down the hill and straight to the mountain.

It took them two hours as Nova expected and the ground was shaking because of footsteps that came from inside the mountain.

Archie took the lead and looked for a way to get inside the mountain by going all the way up and hoping to find an entrance.

“I found it, the entrance into the mountain,” Archie said as he looked down where Eve and Nova were still climbing up the mountain.

“Great! Now, all we need to do is to create a plan, a plan to get out of this place safely,” Nova said as she looked at the entrance and at the hole, they came from. “Wow, we really came all the way here without even getting any trouble,”

The moment Nova said that another roar was heard and it was deafening that they all had to cover their ears. The mountain looked like it was about to crumble any time soon but it was just in Archie and Nova’s minds because the mountain was actually fine.