The Cobra King's Return

Sector Gamma 4

Peti tightened the mining cap on his head, rain bouncing off it in heavy splashes, each drop hitting like a tiny hammer. His mud-slider shoes hummed, letting him glide over the muck, but the storm's ferocity tested even his chaos-loving grin. He clung to Brutalito's horns, leaning forward as the wind whipped around them. "Stay close!" he yelled over the thunder's roar, his voice bouncing weirdly. "If you slip, you're getting eaten by the mud first!" Brutalito trudged beside him, claws squelching deep, his Crunlar-fused skin shimmering red and black, glowing cracks seeping void energy. His spiked collar glinted, tail flicking to keep balance, laser beams flickering in his side mouths, ready to reshape the battlefield with growth manipulation.

Hokori hovered just above the mud, his silvery glow cutting through the rainy haze like a lighthouse, robes shimmering as he guided the group. Mimosa clung to his shoulder, purring defiantly against the storm, her violet eyes glinting with calm amusement. The millions shuffled behind, some slipping in slow-motion chaos, their screams swallowed by the storm as the mud thickened, turning into a sucking, writhing mass. Some sank halfway before realizing, their cries drowned in the gurgling sludge. Hokori's glow became their salvation, blinding beams shooting downward, scorching the muck as he yanked people free with streaks of brightness.

Brutalito planted his claws, but even his massive legs sank slowly, the mud gripping like a greedy beast. Peti dangled from his horns, laughing and screaming, coordinating their moves. "Careful! Left side! Don't let it eat your foot!" he shouted, slapping the mud as if to scold it. Brutalito growled, tearing free with a tail whip that displaced gallons of sludge, sending waves crashing. His horns sparked with gravitational bursts, his laser beams ready to slice through any threat.

The water rose centimeters in minutes, turning the quagmire into a churning flood of sludge and rain. Peti's mud-slider shoes barely kept him afloat, forcing him to rely on Brutalito's sheer force, clinging like a wild passenger on a cosmic beast. Every jump, stomp, and claw strike was calculated, or the mud would swallow them. Hokori dove into the muck, pulling out trapped people, his light leaving trails of scorched air. "Keep moving! Stay together!" he shouted, panic laced with authority. The millions grasped his brightness, some dragged out kicking and screaming just in time.

Lightning cracked, revealing ghostly shapes beneath the mud-rocks, roots, and shadows that made the group flinch. Peti smirked under his cap. "This is like walking through hellwater made by a god... but hey, we got this." Brutalito stomped, kicking a puddle skyward, droplets splashing their faces, making Peti laugh louder, feeling alive in the chaos.

Peti's watch buzzed, its cracked display glitching wildly, magnetic fields flipping chaotically. "Great... this mud's sentient and messing with our GPS," he muttered, glancing at the castle laser piercing the stormy sky, now impossibly far. He hoisted the sniffling Luthari girl and the squirming black Luthari boy onto his shoulders, their mud fight forgotten. "We've got to get there before this place swallows everything," he said, smirking at the chaos. He tapped his watch, dropping a meeting point tech-a glowing laser shooting skyward like a flare. "Everyone, see that? That's our regroup point. Don't get lost in this soup!"

The group slid and ran, zigzagging through the storm, mud sucking at their feet. Gobbly zoomed on his hoverboard, nearly crashing again, while Neuronald rambled about quantum mud anomalies, ignored by all. The Luthari babies squealed, clinging to Brutalito's tail, which carved paths through the sludge. Peti sighed, rain dripping off his cap. "Wish we had Lily right now," he muttered. "She'd dance in this storm, charging herself. And Yumine... she'd send this water somewhere else." He shrugged, grinning. "But we adapt, right?"

The castle loomed closer, its walls pulsing, whispers growing louder-snarls, pleas, laughter-hinting at the second creature: a nightmare of mantis shrimp strikes, tardigrade resilience, and world-killing pathogens. The children and eggs, ticking toward unstoppable power, added dread. Brutalito roared, his collar glinting, tail plowing through the muck, laser beams flaring. Peti gripped his horns, shouting over the wind, "Let's move! Castle's close, and nothing's stopping us!"