The Beats Go On

Chapter 45: Suspicions

🦀Chapter 45: Suspicions

Crab Rave - Corrupted Red and Blue fight

The group was surprised to hear this again. Did all of the crabs have this theme for fighting? The field opened up, and several small red crabs skittered by. Yellow, Ari, Ina, Ami, and Digo all dodged with ease. This was probably just a warm up.

Small crab shaped bombs dropped onto the field, exploding into smaller particles to the beat. The screen soon quickly filled with them, and the group had to scatter to stay alive. Warning lines appeared as the particles remained, and medium sized crab claws flew horizontally across the screen. Ari was hit with a claw while dodging a fading particle from a bomb, and Digo was hit with a particle while dodging a claw. The only question everyone had at the moment was...where was Red and Blue?

The music began to start up, and crab claws spun through the battlefield like boomerangs. The song was preparing for a drop, and the group had to anticipate what would happen. The attacks intensified as more and more of them filled the field. Red and Blue slowly lowered from the top of the field, and there were larger crab bombs forming in the center of the field that were growing by the second. The buildup kept rising and rising as the group remained scattered.

And then the beat dropped.

The crab bombs exploded into particles as Red and Blue dropped to the bottom of the field and began dancing. Several crabs bounced in and out of the field, all coming in random directions. There were warning lines of course, but even then it was hard to dodge. The crabs never fully reached the other side of the field, but it was enough to have everyone dodging like crazy. It was a nice beat, though.

-----

Meanwhile, Coco and the others had finished their other contest, and was told they could take a long break before the next contest. It was a balancing competition, and they'd nearly lost. Luckily, it was all over, and Gray had come over to congratulate them. At the moment, they were in a waiting room that was nearby the candy floss competition area.

"Do you think the others might need our help?" Cas asked.

"Yeah...we finished really quickly, so I'm sure they won't mind if we leave. Besides, something tells me that Champion isn't going to actually give that treeangle piece up as a prize..." Coco muttered.

"Then we should go help the others!" El said.

"Yeah...you're right," Coco replied, sitting up from the chair he was in.

He and Cas got up and began waking to the exit door, with El following behind them. They made their way through the building without too much trouble, and got to the entrance door. But when they got outside, there were swarms and swarms of crabs all over the place, talking about the contest. There was almost no way for the group to get anywhere in this mess. Was there another way?

"EXCUSE ME, BUT WE NEED TO GET SOMEWHERE!!" Cas hollered at the top of his lungs.

Unfortunately his voice was lost over the sea of crabs. Nobody could hear him, and their chattering remained. Well, perhaps it wouldn't hurt to try and make their way through anyway. Coco held onto Cas' hand as he lead the way, because he was the smallest. El held hands with Coco, and the group navigated through the crowd.

Once Coco got to the area he remembered seeing the crab, he began scanning the place. He knew he probably wasn't going to be able to find it too well, but he told the group that when he found it, they all needed to run like crazy to it. As crabs passed by, he got only small glimpses of the area, but soon enough...

"There's the hole!" Coco exclaimed, pointing to it.

"Alright!" Cas shouted happily.

"Let's go, then!" El said.

So the group ran over without further hesitation or another word.

-----

Ari and Ami were on one side, Ina and Digo were on the other. Yellow was in the middle as more crabs skittered along in diagonal lines like arrows to the beat. Red and Blue were still dancing to the beat, and bombs were still dropping. The group was more than halfway through the fight, almost 3/4 of the way through. They just had to keep dodging and dashing, even though Ina and Ami took their fair share of damage. Yellow seemed to have no problem dodging because of his size.

He'd tried to warn the others several times, but the song and the crabs clicking drowned him out. He didn't have the strength to knock them out of the way of incoming attacks, but they were capable of doing that to themselves. As a final attack, Red and Blue jumped around the field very quickly, but there were warning lines as to where they would land next. They generated particles as they landed, but those were easy to dodge. Eventually, the song and battle began calming down, and the attacks lessened.

Digo could see the ending line in sight, but with the crabs starting to skitter around again, it was going to be hard to get to it in time. Of course, the alternate option was just dodge and wait, since the ending line would come to the group in the long run. So that's what he did. As the last line of crabs came through, he dashed through the line last second. He grabbed the triangle and the battle was over.

As the battle closed, the small triangle flew over and revived the two.

"What...what happened?" Red asked.

"You guys were corrupted, remember?" Ami said.

"Oh yeah! Champion was a corrupted crab too! Where is he?" Blue blurted.

The group was shocked, but had a look around, only to find a barren machine room with defeated crabs. The machine was still running, though.

"There's Champion! He's getting away!" Ami shouted.

Following his line of sight, the group saw him flee into another room.

"After him!" Digo shouted.

And so everyone ran.