The Beats Go On

Chapter 17: (Don't) Abandon Ship!

⛵️Chapter 17: (Don't) Abandon Ship!

Elis was swimming in the corrupted waters, going around the island to inspect it. It was pretty large, and he hoped everyone else was okay. He didn't want to stay still and become a sitting duck for cacti, fish, or anything of the sort, which was why he had done this. He had seen the giant lizard thing flee into the skies earlier though, and to be honest it kind of looked more like a dragon. He would be sure to tell the others when they came back.

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Pepe and Cho meanwhile, were halfway up the mountain, and had just recently come to a dead end on their path. The path just kinda...melted into the side of the mountain, and there were no caves nearby. They sighed, and decided to turn around and walk down the path. They could try and catch up with the others, but what if the creature at the top of the mountain wanted to take their treeangle piece? They weren't sure what to do.

The view was nice from here, and they had to admit, they wished they could stay here. But they had only arrived here via their own ship, which had basically broken once a group of corrupted cacti had seen them and attacked. Perhaps they could find another way back home. They didn't exactly plan on staying with the main group, as they could now try and help out other shapes in danger of the corruption. They just hoped the others knew what they were doing.

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Elis still hadn't seen anything suspicious. He couldn't see what was at the top of the mountain either, which bothered him greatly. Skimming the shores, he really only saw trees and plants, no sign of uncorrupted shapes anywhere. Occasionally he'd see a lone corrupted cacti, or a rock troll talking with its comrades. He'd see a flash of pink corruption which would disappear, as if it could be a bird or lizard.

He sighed to himself. This place had seemed interesting at first glance, but now it just seemed boring. Same plants, same life, nothing that really caught his eye. In fact, the only one interesting thing he saw was a waterfall that fell into the ocean, coming from the mountainside. The water was still corrupted, but it surprised him that there was an alternate way into the mountain. In fact, he didn't even know what that group of shapes was up to.

He had hoped that they made it to the mountain okay. He had waited for quite a long time, and still nothing. He didn't hear screams or shouts or anything else of the sort. He understood that it took time to climb a mountain, especially one this big, but he hadn't even seen them when he went around to the side of the mountain to see the waterfall. Not to mention the storm clouds that had begun spreading...

He hoped that there was something at the top to stop the corruption, at least for this island. He remembered studying shape battles when he was younger. There was usually a triangle piece that cured the corrupted or helped you in some way when you won, right? Hopefully there would be one of those there. Hopefully the group could win.

Out of nowhere, he felt a tug at his back. Turning around, he saw a group of corrupted cacti tugging at him. Panicking, he began to swim as quickly as possible in one direction, then turn sharply in an attempt to shake them off. Unfortunately, the cacti clung on, and soon they were joined by small triangular fish that also darted in and out of Elis' way, with some even ramming into him. He was now in full fear mode, and began screaming in the hopes that someone would notice him as he continued swimming back and forth as quickly as he could.

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Cho and Pepe had reached the intersection where the group had first split off. Wasn't too bad of a walk. They felt like the trip back down had taken less time than going up. Probably because they were talking. They scanned around the place to see if there was anything off.

Suddenly, the duo noticed something in the distance. A ship seemed to be getting...pelted with fish? And attacked by corrupted cacti. But either way, it didn't look like he could fend them off. Well, these two weren't about to just sit there and let him become corrupted.

They looked for an alternate path down the mountain, since navigating the underground would take longer. They also didn't want to actually use the path down, because the base of the mountain had unstable ground. They found a less-steep area going down the mountain after closer inspection, but it also had a lot of jagged rocks pointing out as well. They carefully made their way down, trying not to get stabbed on the way. The rocks didn't have sharp edges or anything, but it was still risky.

It took more time than they would have liked to admit, but they made it down in what they strongly thought was a time faster than the other two options. They ran over to where they remembered seeing the ship, and sure enough, he was there, still getting attacked. Only issue was, he wasn't close enough to land for them to fight.

"He's too far away...how do we get him to notice us?" Cho asked.

Well, luckily for them, the sky had been darkened by clouds, and Pepe had the perfect solution.

"Watch and learn" he smiled.

And with that, the black tips of his triangle head began...blinking? It was lighting up then turning off, rapidly back and forth. Cho stared at him. Shapes usually did not have the ability to glow like that, that was only a rare 1/10,000 chance mutation. Well, Cho was glad that Pepe was here.

Luckily for them, Elis saw the blinking and came swimming over, the corrupted fish and cacti hot in his trail. Pepe stopped blinking and Cho prepared to fight.

Time to battle.