《The Confused Explorer》Chapter 16: Lightning Monarchs
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The trek forward never got easier with only more lightning falling as they moved toward hopefully somewhere to rest.
With the trees around Mike and Turul getting hit more and more frequently, Mike just hoped they wouldn't get struck because they looked tasty.
"Are the King and Queen going to come down themselves?" Huffing slightly at how frequently lightning struck, and slightly scared at just how large this colony would have to be in order to need this much in order to get food, Mike started to nervously rattle and curse at this royal couple.
"I mean come on you don't need that much food, you'll get fat you know!" Continuing to rapidly spew words quietly to himself, Mike wished he hadn't said so much, knowing his luck they'd come right for him.
And like clockwork, a large streak cracked the sky in twain as it hit very close to Mike and Turuls location.
Shuffling himself closer towards Turul is the only way in which Mike felt slightly safer, however even he didn't know if Turul would be able to take a hit like that.
As the sounds of splashing and rumbling echoed throughout the area, it seemed like Turul was simply unafraid of anything as he continued to trudge forward without a single look of anxiousness, while Mike on the other hand looked as white as paper and seemed to be shaky at the knees everytime thunder rolled about.
Then, it all stopped, the lightning died with the thunder and it seemed so quiet with only the sound of rain coming about harshly.
This silence went on for minutes, only making Mike more nervous and scared at what was about to occur.
Then, with a crash the world flipped around Mike, the ground beneath him and Turul was pushed away like sand as a wave erupted around them.
The world turned dark as Mike couldn't see anything, but he was unharmed. Right before the crash, and a large amount of earth, and rock could crash onto them, Turul surrounded them in a layer of earth for protection.
Seeking around, Mike found Turul in front of him. Relaxing his shoulders in relief, Mike sat down beside him, knowing what just happened.
"Either the King, Queen, or both came, and I know for a fact that I have to scan them, it's the only way to get stronger." Tearing up slightly for knowing what he was going to have to do, Mike lied there for a brief moment to get himself prepared.
Having another sigh escape his lips, Mike finally asked Turul to release them from the earth and see what the outside looked like.
✵
Being pulled up with Turul, Mike finally saw the area in which they were just in. All over was a pitch black smudge that seemed to be from the strike itself. Along with that a stretch of small land around the landing site was ruined, but after that it seemed to have no effect at all.
In the deep pit of destruction were two small glowing blue lights swirling about as if dancing, it seemed like those were the Queen and King.
"Why'd they come down here though?" Mike was confused about this since it'd seem like they wouldn't come down unless something really good was around.
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Getting closer in slow steps, Mike was trying to get in range of scanning one of them.
Pulling himself closer, Mike kept trying to lock onto one of the two creatures, finally after getting into the black ground range, Mike managed to snag one with The Explorers Log.
With the scanning in process, Mike backed up as quietly and fast as he could hoping not to alert the two buzzing blue lights in the crater.
However, it seemed like the blue bugs had other plans, with two flashes and a slap of thunder they were right on Mike.
Looking at two tiny bee like bugs in slow motion, he saw exactly what they looked like.
They had flew right at him so they were right beside each other, the one on the right for Mike was almost the exact same as the one on the left. The only difference being the right one had a large crown of three round jewels of different colors, Red, Blue, and Purple in that order from left to right.
The one on the left was bigger, yet it had a smaller crown with only one large blue jewel in the middle. These ones were weird too, they had fur like bees only with it being blue and black instead of yellow as they glowed in their typical lightning bug fashion.
Mike managed to scan the smaller of the two with the three jewels.
Eyes wide open, Mike also watched in slow motion as Turul appeared beside them, with a huge storm of wind and earth behind him.
Turul unfurled his wings to release tens of pent up wind stikes towards these two bugs as a distraction. Not slacking though, Turul pulled the earth around them into a dome as too not let the bugs escape and, if possible, to bring about another flurry of earth styled attacks on them.
These bugs weren't having it though, buzzing their wings gently arcs of blue electricity spread though the surroundings, bringing with it destruction. In tandem, these two bugs knew exactly what the other was doing, like real lovers and managed to wreck mayhem on any sort of attack or move by Turul.
As the fight continued with it going back and forth, Mike was lying outside the dome, hearing the rumbles happening from within and chips of earth fall off occasionally.
Slightly dazed, Mike had never realized just how fast fights like this one started, and how quickly they ended as well. Hopefully Turul would be able to finish this one of unscathed, though Mike very much doubted that.
Gritting his teeth, Mike knew that Turul might not be able to make it out of this one.
Mike knew it was his fault for getting Turul into this situation, so he did what he always did, Mike racked his brain searching for any sort of way in which he could help Turul prevail.
"I could maybe use my new powers, but what could I make that could help Turul right now?" Mike had never thought this hard in his life, causing him to get a splitting headache searching his memory over and over, looking for the answer.
'Rubber' before Mike even had a chance to get the thought all the way through his brain, the large earth dome burst apart into dust and small rocks.
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From outside in there was a large crater in the dome with both Turul and the two monarchs fighting it out, with Turul still on the losing end.
Panicking, Mike tried to figure out what he should make with this rubber in order to help Turul.
"Maybe a large bag to capture the bugs in?" thinking of this Mike pulled it out of his own dream, completely disregarding the now disappearing gray backpack and canteen, the bag Mike pulled out was fairly large and could be used by Turul to capture either one of the two bugs.
"Hopefully this rubber will be able to hold off the lightning that they shoot."
Focusing all he could on the rubber bag as for it to not disappear, Mike ran closer towards Turul and the two lightning bugs.
Before Mike could get that close though, the edges of the already destroyed large dome of earth around the fighters burst apart into an explosion of dust, earth, and many blue lightning strikes that seemed to be moving about erratically.
Flying out in a cascade of dust were a large golden bird as it released a multitude of different projectile attacks, such as hardening and throwing boulders, or building up wind pressure and releasing it forward.
Behind this large golden bird were two small blue dots that looked to be about the size of a phone. These two dots had erratic lightning swaying all around them, like whips, cracking the air as they moved. This lightning brought with it destruction of any form of defense of attack as it destroyed anything blocking it.
These two blue lights never seemed to be separated, always staying beside each other, helping each other and bringing about a multiplier effect on their power.
Pushing down on the large golden bird with their combined lightning in the cascading rain, it seemed like Turul is able to tank their hits with his large defense, however it still hurt him immensely so he could only take so many hits.
"Turul take this!" Focusing all he could on the large rubber bag, Mike made sure as for it to not be destroyed. Throwing it as hard
Having a hard time seeing, Mike threw it as hard as he could at the large golden blur as it sped towards him once it heard his voice.
Clutching onto it with his large talons, Turul looked at the weirdly feeling bag.
Not having any idea what this was supposed to be used for, Turul stared at Mike hard in order to figure out what it was as he fought off the two small dots billowing around him at blinding speeds.
"Capture them in the bag, they won't be able to escape from it!" Yelling loudly over the rain, Mike hoped Turul could hear him.
Pushing himself forward with a gale spreading about, Turul rushed towards the royal pair.
Exchanging attacks for what felt like hours to Mike as he watched the ongoing fight, he couldn't keep himself distracted and focused all he could onto the rubber bag.
It seemed like Turul was at even more of a disadvantage with his talons now occupied by a large rubber bag, however it helped Turul block off some hits of lightning that the two threw at him.
✵
Finally, Turul managed to get his opportunity. As the lightning died for a split second, Turul with speeds faster than the two bugs, rushed them, bringing with him a large rubber bag.
Sweeping it towards them as they released another bout of lightning that hit mainly the bag, however neither the two monarchs or Turul knew that the bag was able to absorb lightning. Once hit, the bag absorbed the lightning like it was nothing. Sweeping the bag over the two and closing it tight with both claws. The two bugs struggled incessantly as you could hear that large sound of lightning cracking air inside the bag, and the loud sound of buzzing wings.
As Turul flew back down towards Mike, it made sure to keep the bag sealed as tight as possible in order to ensure that it could be kept safely.
"Should we kill these two bugs?" Standing in front of Turul, Mike had thoughts of killing these two.
"If we kill them the surrounding lightning bugs will go into a frenzy over losing these two, however if we don't they'll send an army of these guys to kill us."
"But I know bugs like these usually work with chemical signals, so if we just keep this bag tightly shut maybe the other bugs won't realize that their Queen and King just died."
Scratching his head, Mike didn't know if that'd actually work and it was a highly risky maneuver.
"Plus I still have to scan that other one." Speaking of scanning, Mike looked at the progress bar for the one he did manage to get scanned before the big fight.
The fight probably took a little under an hour, and this scanning was almost done.
Waiting the last couple of minutes while keeping check over the bag, making sure nothing went wrong. Mike finally saw that this scanning process was done and was ready to look at what this little bug was.
--Queen Lightning Bug: The ruler over a colony of Lightning Bugs, this Queen is chosen over a duel of upwards of thousands of royal contestants for the throne. When a Queen is chosen she naturally grows her crown and three jewels, with each jewel representing a power. When the Queen is ready to mate she chooses her spouse that will be with her for as long as they both live. The Queen Lightning Bug honey created for her young is said to be a very precious material used in a multitude of beverages and foods. The Queen Lightning Bug is able to use lightning attacks that bring about storms for her colony, she may also use her other powers in order to fight or to defend her colony. When a Queen loses her spouse, she is able to increase the intensity of the storm in which she creates by many levels for a brief period of time in anger. It is said that in this mode a Queen has another name, 'Monarch of Storms'.
Environment: Storms
Effects: N/A
Danger Level: Extreme
Rarity: Rare
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