Solo Trip 6

If Xylon could smile he would be. He was in total control of the battlefield. For now. There were more and more Xeomorphs coming from down the tunnel. Xylon could handle fighting them, but that wasn't his job. He should just try to ditch the horde and flee. He had to find the Egg Carrier or the Food Storage room. 

"Better. Make. This. Look. Good" He bubbled as he thought as of a plan.

He controlled his [Watertide Grapple] to move from the floor to creating a ring in the tunnel. It resembled a weird mouth with tentacle like teeth. Xylon shifted away from this now [Watertide: Grappling Maw], and positioned himself behind it. Now that he was no longer touching his skill it went back to its natural blue hue.

The horde charged forward ignoring both the burnt corpse and the water maw in front of them. They were tasted with kill the intruder and that's what they would do. As soon as they got close to the water maw it lashed out at them. Dozens of the Xeomorphs were grappled by the water tentacles, but a handful managed to jump through the water hoop. 

While in the air Xylon lashed out! He created a water bubble shield behind them. Those behind the first wave were stuck while those inside were trapped. 

"Bring. It. On. You. Filthy. Animals!" Xylon moved like a stretched blob. His body morphed into an octopus form. He finely controlled his tentacles so at the ends of them were smaller 6 appendages resembling a hand. He moved each of his 8 tentacles and grabbed both Hive Guard Hunters and Kompies alike. 

Hive Guard Hunters were grabbed by the neck while Kompies had their entire bodies grappled and flung around. The tunnel was filled with the cries of the Xeomorphs as they began to burn from the acidic touch of Xylon. He flung their burning or dead bodies back to his water bubble creating an additional barrier inside. 

Corpses floated in the bubble as those Xeomorphs still alive began to drown as they dissolved alive from the acid. Other Xeomorphs began to jump into the bubble barrier and swim through the acidic water to reach their pray. They had to navigate the small windows between the corpses floating in the bubble. 

This was Xylons plan to limit how many Xeomorphs he would face at once. As soon as one made it through the water bubble he would lash out. He would aim for a face or neck or any other vital part of the body. He would make sure that the end of his tentacles wrapped tightly around his prey. He wanted to make sure that every time he grabbed one it would lead to their death. 

Over the next few minutes Xylon began to into the swing of things. Xeomorphs would jump through his bubble, he'd grapple them and throw their burning bodies back through. Rinse and repeat. As much as he enjoyed killing Xeomorphs, but he had to make a get away. He used one of his tentacles to reach into his body pulling a chunk of himself out. He slowly moved the small part of himself into an even smaller crevasse.

What he was doing was creating a spiritual backup. It was a special ability of his race, but there are some down sides. Reduced size and mana pool were the biggest ones. Although, for another chance of life by avoiding death. Many would say it's a worth wild trade off. 

Once he had left a back up and his water bubble was filled with corpses he decided to make a run for it. He had 2 lays of a barrier between him and the horde with the addition of his [Watertide: Grappling Maw]. Which he connected to his [Water Bubble Shield: Toxic bubble] to make his [Watertide: Grappling Maw] even deadlier. 

With no one on his tail he quickly left the further down the tunnel. He did his best to shrink his body to resemble a water stream flowing at the edges of the tunnel. Although, he was a length of 20ft he didn't look too much like a stream, but it was the best disguise he had. 

As he traveled the tunnel he began to run into more and more Xeomorphs. He had to tuck the parts of his body into the cracks of the wall to resemble a crack in the wall with water pouring out. Thankfully his disguise worked. Hive Guard Hunters and Kompies would glance at him or ignore him completely. 

Over the next hour he traverse miles of different tunnels. He would occasionally have to circle back to another fork in the road to take the other path. During this time he saw many different rooms built by the Xeomorphs. Waste chambers, dozens of nurseries and even sleeping rooms for a plethora of Xeomorphs that weren't awake yet. Yet no food storage room! He actually came across a few, but they were all rotted. This was the food storage room he was looking for.

The ones he had found were for the Hive Guard Hunters and Kompies and other Xeomorph soldiers who still slept till they were needed. He avoided those rooms since they had powerful guards. His goal was the food storage room that had pristine food or cocooned Xeomorphs. Some Xeomorph hives would cocoon powerful members of their hive to feed the Queen so that she may give birth to stronger Xeomorphs. 

Whether the Xeomorphs did that as they believed it or because they lacked food, no one could really say. Xylon just knew that there were reports of cannibalisms in CIA reports. 

While traversing down the tunnel Xylon quickly picked up the scent of corpses. This was it target! He quickly slithered towards where the smell was and found an opening to a large room filled with fruits gathered from the wild and the fresh corpses of planetary beasts and CIA members alike. It was an awful smell, but it was the food for the Queen. He mentally marked the route and began to travel back the wat he came, but a soon as he turned around he stopped. 

He didn't need to use his senses to know what stood before him. The Xeomorph had a spider like body, but where the head should be was the torso of a female Danirum. She was nude with long flowing hair that covered her chest and back.

"Well well well. Looks like I was lucky enough to find an intruder" she spoke softly with a hint of satisfaction. She licked her lips and eyed Xylon. 'Although I don't think you'd taste well. Nothing more than some water aren't you? Too bad I can't lay my eggs in you. If only you had a warmer body." She smiled and blinked her eyes almost trying to seduce him. 

Xylon changed his shape into his original form, but with this time with 4 arms. "I. Won't. Go. Easy." He bubbled while getting into a battle stance. 

"Oh this will be some fun" the Royal Guard said as she clapped her hands. The sound from her clap was so loud it rumbled the tunnel! Xylons form began to shake violently as the sound waves disrupted his form. This is when the Royal Guard Struck. She charged forward with 2 legs out stretched. With a single upward swipe she sliced off all 4 of Xylons arms. 

Xylon tried to back up, but the Royal Guard only clapped her hands again. His movements staggered as he tried to control his form. The legs swiped vertically this time slicing his legs off. even though Xylon was more or less made of water once limbs were removed they were purely water. He couldn't reattach them unless he could touch them.

He tried to, but every time he could move the Royal Guard would simple clap her hands. He'd began to struggle to even more in maintaining his form. The Royal Guard grinned as though she was in heat from torturing and killing him. What's worse is Xylon knew the Royal Guard was simply toying with him. He could tell she was holding back.

In a last ditch attempt Xylon quickly changed what remained of his body into a single point aimed at the Royal Guards face. Just centimeters away and he was caught in a thick invisible web. He was caught off guard. How could simple spider web stop his liquid body he thought. Almost as if she read his mind the Royal Guard spoke. 

"Seems you don't know about the arachnid's that can weave silk to capture water. Too bad you won't have the chance to learn more." She spoke with a malicious grin eager to kill. She moved her hands into his watery body and clapped. His body was shredded to water as it splattered against her face, body and the inside of the tunnel walls. 

This form of Xylon was killed. The Royal Guard began to lick the water of her hands disappointed it wasn't blood. There was no body for her to lay her eggs into. She knew there were only 2 intruders left and hoped to run into one. She began to grin more and more as her cheeks began to flush. She couldn't wait to have a warm body to lay her eggs into. She walked away from the scene laughing.

Back at the entrance Xylon opened his metaphorical eyes in his back up body. He began to heave as his mind flashed back from death to life. His body was only 12 ounces of liquid and his mana pool was 1/100th of the size as before. He couldn't create any water barriers or anything for the next 48 hours. He calmed himself before thinking of a plan to get back. 

Thanks to his size he could sneak back quicker than before. He mentally sent a message to his other bodies with the rest of the group telling them he had found the right food storage room. He also informed them he ran into a Royal Guard so everyone should be on high alert. Once he knew everyone had the message to go back to their hidden base he snuck away.