Chapter 40: Bored rhinoceros

Gustav didn't know what to expect, especially since he didn't know what gas was supposed to be. Furthermore, it was still difficult to trust Andena just yet, let alone give her a blaster.

He felt conflicted, but yet she still insisted. "Hand it over, sir. I'm not letting you go in there and poison your pets. Even if there wasn't any gas down there, you'd still drown."

It was difficult to argue with solid logic, most would give in right now, but Gustav still found an alternative. "Drown? We can swim."

"For over two hundred meters, and from the bottom of the ocean? You're ridiculous." She countered.

"You two are getting on my nerves," Arila interrupted.

Afterwards, with no warning whatsoever, she pulled out a blaster from the utility belt on her thigh, and shot at the tunnel. She assumed that was the little plan which the others argued about.

This sudden movement, however, got Andena's heart pumping beyond expectations. Within a couple of seconds, she transformed into her great, twelve-foot tall form!

It was the quickest she could shift, and likewise her clothes suffered rips and tears!

Anyway, the second she transformed, a fiery dot caught her eye, and it was deep within the tunnel. It was almost indistinguishable from the orange blast, but given the time span, the blast should have deteriorated by now.

"No time," Andena thought.

Those couple of long arms which stretched out of her chest, were immediately put into use. She grabbed both of the people who were in front of her, tossed them towards the sky, and away from the ocean!

This all happened within a split second, and yet the two were tossed over one-hundred meters above the ground already!

She used the other split second, to jolt towards the moles and flying demons too. Perhaps she gathered all of them up by luck, but a couple of moves she made in the process, could be considered smart enough to generate their own stroke of luck!

Andena fluttered her massive wings forward, just to push all creatures together. It spiked up the gathering speed tenfold, she was efficient!

As the explosion behind them developed, she finally leaped towards the sky. She saved all of them indefinitely, but since they still didn't have enough time, a scorching wave of fire followed them right away!

"Ah, my fucking ears!" Gustav shouted, even though now, he was a comfortable distance away from the threat.

He witnessed the whole explosion unfold, just after he got a brief sense of what was going on!

A whole lot of fire shot out of that tunnel, and it only traveled forward, as if it had an urge to burn everything on its path!

Andena tried her best to escape this mess, but it was difficult. The couple of people who were tossed and still were high across the sky, witnessed her struggle and fear!

That massive, thirty-foot wide wingspan she had, seemed tiny in comparison to the explosion. Yet they helped flutter against the flow of time itself, through raw power alone.

After three vicious slaps against the air, she bought herself a whole other second of freedom, which she used to fly away even further!

This chain of air splitting speed continued, until she was toe-to-toe with hell's blooming rage. A blink of an eye would've been enough to have all of them killed, but she managed to escape just when this explosion reached its fiery limit!

"Hah," Andena sighed and briefly celebrated.

She failed to calculate the shock-wave as a threat, however. It followed along instantly, knocked against her back, and sent her spiraling down from the sky!

Such a predicament was difficult to counter, or an inexperienced bird would struggle at least. Andena was no amateur though.

The first thing she did was gather her wings together, and close to her chest. This stopped all the spinning and dizziness almost instantly, it was a foolproof reaction!

Right after, she opened up those wings which later on ensured a smooth landing. Since Gustav and Arila were still flying, she set every demon down and went after them.

"How was your flight?" The owl teased, after she caught up to them in mid-air.

"Terrifying!" Arila was the first to answer.

"Good," She followed along, and then added. "Don't shoot at things you don't understand, you almost got us killed."

Such a scold was fair, at least. Hypothetically, not even the demons could survive such a fireball, which was ironic. Their mortality was questionable, and it was too dangerous to experiment with that concept.

However, regardless of how reckless this whole half minute had been, the raw and uncertain plan they made was still effective.

The explosion didn't just spread above ground, but below the ocean as well. It was difficult to point fingers until where it reached out, but all that gas likely traveled easily before it was set ablaze.

The waters were boiling, which was a good indicator of proper expansion. That was not all, they saw something emerge from the ocean, nearly three-hundred meters away!

The metallic and silvery features were unmistakable… this was that terranidan spaceship, surely alien! The sun-beams they reflected, helped confirm this even from afar!

"Was that your plan? You wanted to knock that thing loose?" Gustav asked, as he stood on his toes with joy.

The ocean waves pushed the ship towards them, which at this point marked a solid milestone of the whole mission, regarding the beacon project. Soon enough they'll have access to some really handy, alien technology!

Anyway, Andena answered. "My plan was to keep your pets alive, because they're special. With all that gas available, helping you get that ship was child's play. You don't have to risk their lives now, so please behave."

"Hey, I care about them too! If you think you're weird, I have you know that these 'pets' are actually my kids!" Gustav countered.

He wanted to be secretive, but that prior comment was difficult to ignore. Luckily, this great owl didn't react violently whatsoever.

Instead, she just said. "Interesting…"

Within the few minutes of their shared silence, the spaceship eventually made it to the shores. Since it was about thirty meters wide, however, most of this thing was still in the waters!

It was explorable nonetheless, and when Gustav saw a wide open hole on the side of the ship, he said. "Oh, I remember this. Should be pretty safe in there, let's go!"