Chapter 38: The mountains
Riding along the duo followed valley after valley looking for the deepest cracks in the cliffs without any luck till they finally stop on the edge of a deep ravine.
"This is bullshit man, what is this temple or the mountain roots even supposed to look like damn it?" Darick says clearly getting annoyed as he sees a storm brewing in the sky. "this one looks pretty nasty we should at least hold up somewhere till it blows over."
"ah what are you scared for mister indestructible, a little thunder going to make you shake in your boots?" Tral goads him on right before lighting strikes a nearby cliff sending rocks tumbling into the valley. "on second thought maybe your right, it would suck to get buried under all that rubble.."
Just then a series of cries can be heard echoing each other as they approach. Over the edge off the mountain top a long scaly head protrudes looking right at them. "shit we have company. WYVERN!"
As if summoned four midsized lightning wyvern fly over them as the one that had spotted it's prey began it's half hoping half gliding decent towards them on its two legs. A bolt of lightning cracking out of its mouth at the par who hastily abandons their bikes to dodge it.
The bolt strikes one bike causing it to explode, the impact sends the already dodging Darick right into the ravine only to be caught by one of the wyverns claws who immediately tries to chew on him to no avail.
Tral makes a jet pack quickly launching himself into the air after them narrowly avoiding an other bolt sent by a different wyvern. He fires off several shots with his handgun at the wyvern as they pass darick around quite upset that he is so hard to pick apart, the bullets simply bouncing off their scales till one hits a wing causing it's owner to scream in pain before launching more lightning at Tral.
This exchange goes on for a bit before Darick finally is able to grab one of the heads, proceeding to repeatedly punch the creature in the eye causing it to start spinning wildly out of control crashing into the mountain side.
Tral lands nearby to set up an anti-aircraft turret he uses to start doing some real damage causing the wyverns to decide that this prey was to much of a hassle and flying away.
"Guess we are having wyvern for dinner, heard it's pretty gamy" Darick calls out while trying to separate his arm from the now dead beasts eye socket.
"well at least we aren't bored. Eh Darick." Tral jokes with relief. "it would have been pretty bad if we lost each other out here."
As the two are joking around a dark figure crawls up behind Darick. Before Tral could issue a warning, Darick was struck to the ground.
He was struck again by the now visible tail as a large scorpion came over the wyverns body seemingly confused that it didn't piece it's target but relents to drag the corpse back into a crack in the mountains.
"That was close, good thing they keep attacking you and not me, eh Darick" Tral teases while looking around to make sure there weren't more of them.
On closer inspection the cliff they where on was bumpy and covered in cracks which made
Tral decide to use the jet pack to stay off the ground, giving Darick one as well.
When he got some altitude, He shouted with a happy surprise "Oh you got to see this! I think we found what we are looking for."
From further away the lower parts of the mountain side looked like it was made out of thick roots reaching deep into the canyon which sharply dropped into a pitch black crack.
The pair proceeded to the edge of that crevice where Tral made them some head lamps as well as a few flash lights although they still couldn't see the bottom.
"There's probably all manner of creepy creatures in there… Guess I should probably go ahead then." Darick said dubiously.
"Naw, lets wait for a bit, it's been a long day and I for one have already had enough excitement" Tral claims as he creates a basic stone hut who's interior is reinforced so it doesn't look unusual from the outside.
They each take turns resting in case some other strange animal shows up. Darick wakes up the next morning to some strange noises only to find Tral casually throwing flash bangs into the pit.
"What the blazes are you up to this time?" He asks while rubbing the sleep from his eyes.
"well if you must know, when I started there was a lot of movement down there and some big ass spiders came up but after dropping some weighted spears and a ton more flash bangs they pretty much decided to give up this area? So at this point I'm just keeping it that way." Tral explains with a matter of fact tone before a ton of stinky liquid rained down the pit followed by a fire ball shooting out turning the crevice into an inferno as the napalm ignited.
Darick laughs it off "well that's one way to do it, much prefer this method to using me as a meat shield and now we don't have to deal with webs."
This is followed up by Tral making a couple knotted ropes just in case Darick needs to climb out without him before the two decide to proceed in search of the ancient temple.
This crack by the roots of the mountains is a lot deeper the they originally thought, as they descend with the jet packs Tral randomly throws flares into the cliff side and the pit but they barely provide enough light to be mpileuch help.
After going down for over an hour, they can finally see the flares landing in a on the ground or what they thought was the ground until the flares disappear as if absorbed.
"it seems to be some kind of mud or sand." Darick guesses when suddenly a large ugly worm's head emerges out of the substance followed by many more which Tral doses with napalm to send them burning back under again. The oily surface of the substance completely lights on fire forcing them to retreat higher as an awful smell permeates the air.
"Oh sweet fuck, I think that is beast shit that must have built up over centuries. I think I'm going to throw up" Darick heaved as they did their best to get away from the noxious pool of worms and feces that was still burning strong.
This at least provided ample lighting that revealed a massive opening in the cliff wall behind them that looked to be formed by the mountain roots splitting apart which the pair quickly went into as to avoid the appalling odor.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone