Chapter 38: The flaw in the plan
Chapter 38: The flaw in the plan
The desert Pohatu and Hewkii knew was a plain sand field with just a few more or less bigger rocks and canyons. This desert only contained canyons made of rock and sand. There were so many hideouts for enemies and their nervousness was growing.
“This area would be perfect for an ambush”, Hewkii said, “The only problem is that we can’t find someone to attack.”
“It would be better to fly over them instead of walk between them”, Pohatu said.
A noise beside them made them startle. A little Kofo Jaga was crawling over the wall and tried to hide behind a rock.
“No, this is not what we’ve been searching for”, Pohatu sighed relieved, , “Ours is a bigger one.”
“Like this one?” a voice snarled behind them.
The two shot around. A Nuhvok was standing behind them, a Nui Jaga came climbing down the wall.
“Just the two of you?” Pohatu laughed, “Have you really planned to attack us or have you just fallen down the rocks?”
“Same question for you, Toa”, the Bohrok answered, But do you really think we are all alone? Can’t it also be possible that a whole army of Nui Jaga and Bohrok have already watched you for some time? It was a very stupid idea to come here without bringing your friends, Toa.”
The Toa looked up. Wasn’t there something else crawling over the walls or standing on top of them? It sounded as if there were dozens of Nui Jaga around.
“What shall we do?” Hewkii whispered, “Fight?”
Pohatu laughed humourless. “We won’t stand a chance against this mass of Nui Jaga and if the Bohrok is right he brought his colleagues along as well. Even Tahu would notice that this fight won’t take a long time. All we can do is trying to get away from here as fast as possible.”
“But how? We would have to run that Bohrok in front of us over and they will all follow us.”
“If he’s not getting away fast enough I would have no other choice than running him over. Nothing will stop me so easily once I have started racing. Jump on my back, else you won’t be able to keep up with me.”
~~~***~~~
Onua was now crawling slower through the tunnel. His senses were alarmed. There was something that shouldn’t be there at least not in this mass and not in Onu Metru. Nuparu looked back. “Why have you stopped? Is there something wrong?”
“Can you smell that? Can you hear it?”
“Well, it smells like wet earth … maybe a little too wet. But this could be because of an underground spring.”
“No, it’s more like a whole underground lake. I’ve never heard of something like that so close to the city.”
He started moving again. “Come, we need to know what has happened.”
Only a few minutes later the tunnel ended. They now should have had a look over the huts of Onu Metru.
“Oh no …” Onua whispered when he reached the end of the tunnel and looked into the great hall. “Who has let the water Bohrok in?”
“The next fallen city”
“No, it’s rather … swimming.”
The whole area was flooded. In the dark water shadows that looked like Bohrok were swimming around.
“Oh great, what shall we do now?” Nuparu sounded desperate. “I hope the people were able to get out of here.”
“I have seen many Onu Matoran in Ta Metru. Maybe all of them have left the city already before this happened. “Onua wasn’t really sure about that but at least it was calming him down a bit.” The Bohrok have to notice us somehow. The plan was to wreck havoc but that’s not possible as long as they don’t even see us.” He leaned out of the tunnel a bit an let his hands run over the wall. “Maybe I can climb out, close enough over the water.”
“Be carefully.”
“Don’t worry. I’ve been doing this for many years and never managed to fall off a wall.”
He carefully glided forward and tried to find a stand. Climbing over rocks was so much different than climbing over wet rocks and water not too far under his feet. The stone slipped away under his fingers and feet but he always somehow managed to find balance quickly enough.
Something big jumped out of the water, tried to snap at his feet and fell back. Water splashed against Onua’s back and the wall. The stones slipped away under his fingers.
A hand closed around his wrist and dragged him back against the wall. Nuparu was hanging beside him. He looked as if he had seen the hell breaking loose.
“We have to get away from here. There must be a few dozens of them. I’ve seen them coming from tunnels around and there already had been so many of them down there.”
Onua looked down. His feet were already standing in the water.
“They are trying to flood the whole area. We can’t get back to the tunnel we came from otherwise we would be trapped. We have to reach one of the tunnels above us.”
They started climbing up, the water slowly followed.
“When we reach the tunnel we would be able to fight at least a few of them”, Nuparu shouted.
“I don’t think they want to fight us directly”, was Onua’s response. “It rather looks as if they want to drown us. We have to leave the underground as fast as possible.”
~~~***~~~
Tahu was a master of the lava board but this was driving even him to his limits. He would have been able to fight during surfing but those creatures were just shooting around them and the two fire Toa had to try their best to avoid them.
A Bohrok hit Tahu hard. He tried to find balance again but it was useless. Fire was no problem to him but lava was too hot to bear. He would have screamed out in pain if the burning liquid hadn’t already closed over his head.
“Tahu!” Jaller had no time to concentrate but it still was enough that he didn’t sink in when he ran over to the place his friend had disappeared. The lava was burning his soles, a Bohrok winged his head but he didn’t notice any of it. He only focused on one thing. He reached out his hands into the liquid, was able to grab Tahu and dragged him out. His body was burned badly and he was barely conscious. Jaller knew that he had no time for searching one of the lava boards so he had to carry his friend and run the way back, a few Bohrok close behind him. He knew that the city wasn’t far anymore when he felt hard ground under his feet again but he had to get rid of the Bohrok first otherwise he would have led them directly to the Matoran. Where was his weapon? He couldn’t fight them bare handed. But then he noticed that Tahu’s swords were on his back again. Hadn’t he used them as lava board before? But then again the board had mysteriously disappeared after its owner had fallen off.
Jaller tried to lay Tahu down carefully and quickly the same time, grabbed his swords and stepped in front of the creatures.
“Get back or die! I won’t let you through!”
There were only five Bohrok that were left. All others seemed to have lost their trail or just lost interest but that also meant that still five of them could attack him the same time. And those bastards were tough. The fire blades had to drive through several times before at least one was taken down. The fact that the creatures were immune to fire was no big help. Jaller knew that he only would have needed to destroy the Krana to wipe them out immediately but a greater strength than his right now would have been needed to break through those head plates. His limbs were hurting awfully when he finally brought the last one down. For a moment he just stood there and stared at the bodies around him without really seeing them. He felt blood running down his sleeves, saw blood dripping from his arms; he didn’t know if it was even his own.
‘Tahu’, it finally shot through his mind. He stumbled back to his friend and picked him up again. His limbs protested but what else could he have done?
Some Matoran noticed them when he finally stumbled out of the caves and into the city and ran over to them.
“Bohrok attack … he needs … help …”, Jaller only brought out before he broke down to his knees.
