"Is that Archie?" whispered the mayor, confused at the sight of the person. It was raining so much that it was almost impossible to tell if he was really him.
"No way…" said a voice from the crowd, almost disappointed.
"I guess he was a traitor like them too…"
"No, I'm sure he's trying to help us, no Archie?"
In the crowd, multiple people believed that Archie was doing this to punish the outsiders, while others thought it was because he was on their side.
The mayor started to walk towards him madly. "ARCHIIEE, STOP THIS DAMN RAINNNN!" shouted the mayor. He knew well the power of Archie; he was one of the Tideflares. He walked with a thought in mind.
'Now he will hear me, I will make him stop immediately.' The mayor could not think clearly, his mind was full of bad thoughts. He walked menacingly towards Archie, who just remained still, almost smirking.
"EVERYONE, ARCHIE IS THE REAL TRAITORRR!" shouted a voice. Everyone knew it well; as they turned around, they saw Garoo, who was breathing heavily. It felt like he had been running for so long nonstop.
"What do you mean, Archie?" asked Naluri, confused. Garoo had appeared exactly near them; everyone in the town was confused.
"WHAT ARE YOU EVEN SAYING, GAROO? ARE YOU A TRAITOR TOO?" shouted the mayor as he stopped to speak directly with Garoo on the other side of the square. The rain suddenly became weaker, but it was still going, and it felt like the rain had created a sort of path.
"No way… then are they going to betray us like this?"
"We are more, our city will not fall this easily."
"I really hope so…"
Multiple people in the crowd were only believing what the mayor was saying, without even giving a chance to Garoo's version.
"Listen… I know you are all like this because of the tower… but now we have bigger problems to think about!" shouted Garoo, hoping that everyone in the town would turn towards him, but it wasn't happening.
"YOU ARE ALL SO ANNOYINGGG!" shouted the mayor angrily, smashing his feet on the ground. It felt like he completely lost his mind. As people heard the word tower, they changed their attitude.
"Tower?"
"Do you know who might have destroyed it?"
"SOMEONE… JUST TELL ME THE TRUTH!"
The people were panicking now; the air was colder and everyone was shaking because of the temperature.
"The tower didn't stop because of anyone, it was because it didn't receive any maintenance!" shouted Darian. Archie, hearing that, clearly looked annoyed.
In the crowd there was a huge silence; people didn't know what to say, so they just remained listening to him.
"I know how that kind of stuff works… I'm sorry to tell you all…" said Darian as he took a small step forward, looking down.
"It was inevitable… no one could have prevented it."
Suddenly, the people from the town gasped. The mayor was the only one who didn't look like he believed him.
"ARE YOU REALLY GOING TO BELIEVE THIS PERSON? DON'T FUCKING TELL ME!" shouted the mayor, mad.
"But how does he know something this important…"
"I still believe it was them."
"But he said that it was inevitable… maybe there was nothing we could do to prevent that."
The crowd was even more confused; some people were scared, while others were mad. The most annoyed one was Archie.
"You need to believe him, everyone, he's from the Old World!!!" shouted Garoo. With that, everyone seemed confused.
"No way…"
"HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE?"
"Maybe he's actually right then…"
The mayor suddenly locked his eyes again with Archie. "I don't care about your Old World and everything… I will protect my damn city!!!" shouted the mayor as he walked closer to Archie.
Archie was next to the corner of a building; it was impossible to see what was there. The moment the mayor passed the building, Archie wasn't scared; he simply spoke normally. "It's time, everyone…"
Suddenly, without even realizing it, something, or someone, was rolling down the street, going directly towards the mayor.
It had multiple spikes over its body. The mayor didn't even have time to react before his body was smashed by these spikes. As the creature rolled on the ground, the mayor's body remained attached to the spikes; all of his blood scattered around the street. Multiple organs flew into the crowd, who screamed in fear.
Suddenly, the creature stopped rolling and stood on its two feet.
"HELLO, HUMANSSS," said the creature. It was all black. Darian, Liro, and Vane immediately realized what it was.
This monster was humanoid; its body was extremely muscular and heavy. Its chest was extremely big, and its abs were really resistant and massive, nothing close to what humans could ever reach. It looked like it had a sort of shark-like scales all over its body.
Its arms were longer and resistant, with multiple claws. Its legs were short, but they were definitely the strongest part of its body.
On its back, it had multiple spikes; right now they were full of blood. Stuck on some of them, there was still the leg of the mayor, which hadn't been launched away when the creature stopped rolling.
Its tail was the biggest part of its body, covered in spikes as well. It ended in a beautiful lunate tail; it felt like it could move extremely fast in the water. Its face was probably the scariest part, it looked protected by a sort of natural helmet. Its jaw was extremely strong, with small quills going down. This creature had a ferocious natural look.
The mayor's head flew directly near Archie, who kicked it as hard as he could.
"IT IS A KRUKINNNN!" shouted Darian, scared. Everyone turned towards him. Without even having time to realize it, multiple other krukins came from the same building where the bigger krukin had reached them.
They were mostly Kruktopus, but what felt strange was that they were walking in the desert as if it were nothing.
"I must say that you really prepared us a beautiful terrain, Archilochus. I didn't think I would ever see krukins walking in the desert like this," said the krukin who could speak as he walked closer to the humans. He removed the leg from his spikes and threw it towards the scared humans, hitting a child on the head and making him fall unconscious.
"Poisudonom… you should call the others, they are already fighting back." Archie pointed towards the group of alterids who were fighting against the small Kruktopus in the town.
Darian, who fused with Snowy the moment he shouted the word krukin, immediately shot multiple shards towards the Kruktopus, hitting their heads and making them explode.
"Everyone, go behind!" shouted Naluri as she helped everyone evacuate. People ran, scared, not knowing what to do.
Vane turned into a Boffalo and rushed towards the Kruktopus, killing multiple of them. Liro created an illusion of a person extremely injured and alone; thanks to that, multiple krukins went towards it, distracted.
Lily was scared; she didn't know what to do. Everything felt extremely strange for her. She had never seen anything like this, and she didn't know what to do.
"What…" whispered Lily, scared. She had always dreamed of something like this, the time she would fight krukins and protect the world, making new experiences, but now that it was happening, it felt extremely fast, and she could barely move her legs.
A Kruktopus rushed towards her and jumped directly at her. Lily, scared, immediately closed her eyes, not knowing what to do. Suddenly, Garoo behind her created the note TI; as the invisible bubble touched the enemy, it flew away.
"LILY, DON'T BE SCARED, WE HAVE TO FIGHT BACK!" shouted Garoo as he created multiple bubbles that hypnotized everyone who watched them. The Kruktopus, not knowing what they were, locked their eyes on them and remained still.
Vane rushed at them and smashed their bodies the moment his paws touched their heads.
"Vane, I'll leave her to you, I'll go for Archie!" shouted Garoo. Vane nodded and immediately positioned himself next to her.
"Don't look at the purple bubbles," said Archie to Poisudonom, who didn't answer him. The moment Archie looked at him, he noticed that he was stuck, his gaze locked on the purple bubble.
"Tch." Archilochus, annoyed, concentrated more rain on the bubbles, which exploded almost immediately.
"Oh, sorry, were you saying?" said Poisudonom as he snapped back to reality.
"Take the stone and call them," Archie answered, annoyed.
"Oh, right!" Poisudonom grabbed something from his body, it was a green stone, the same one Darian and the others had seen in the water caves the first time they encountered a krukin who could speak.
Poisudonom smashed the stone in his hand and waited for something, smiling amused. Suddenly, a portal opened behind them.
"Everyone, it's the signal, we have to go!" said Anacreon. Behind them, countless krukins were waiting. Next to him there were Phocylides and the same krukin Darian and the others had fought in the water caves.
"Banaikuj, are you ready?" asked Anacreon, amused.
'AAAAA, I can't wait to see the destruction of a city… I can't contain my excitement anymore,' he thought as his body was exploding with happiness.
"I'm ready… I want to destroy these foolish humans," said Banaikuj. His long claws dragged on the ground.
Garwhole flew onto Anacreon's shoulder. "It will be only you and Poisudonom as black defenders. From the information Archilochus told us, it should be enough for a small city like that."
"So you're staying here with me, Garwhole?" asked Anacreon.
"In case things get bad, I'll enter the battlefield too, but I doubt it."
"Everyone, get ready. I don't want to lose any time, be fast and… make them suffer!" shouted Phocylides.
Anacreon opened a single portal and moved away. Banaikuj shouted something in the krukin language; all the countless krukins shouted and entered the portal.
"Aren't you going to Yalemba too? Don't you want to see your old city?" Leobruns and Sappho were watching everything.
"Nah, I would prefer to arrive there once everything is destroyed. To be honest, I'm not missing it at all," said Sappho.
With that, countless krukins emerged from the portal. Darian was watching in fear; Vane also saw Banaikuj, and his body shook in terror.
"It's him…" said Vane as he remembered the first time he saw him in the water caves and the massive damage he took.
"Lily, I need you to hold tightly, alright?" asked Vane. Lily, still scared, was riding him.
"Alright…"
As Banaikuj emerged from the portal, his long nails dragged on the ground, creating an extremely disturbing sound.
"Oh, you're here, Banaikuj. We haven't seen each other for so long!" shouted Poisudonom. Banaikuj turned his head towards him.
"It has been a long time, yes. How was everything in the sea?"
"It was extremely fun! You can't imagine how many things I found deep in the ocean."
"Very well… you'll tell me everything once this is over, alright?"
Poisudonom nodded. Together, they rushed towards the terrified humans.