Chapter 138 - To Break The Ice

*(mood song: "Bon Jovi - Have a nice day")

More roars were heard in the distance, the mountain trembling as he was going downhill, at the base of the mountain the tentacled forest retracted as they went inside their tunnels in the ice, to the safety of their icy nest.

Rose: [launch successful! sending messages now into all bands in that direction!]

Erik: [great, that's reassuring but... do you know what is that thing coming over?]

Rose: [No idea, but... it should be a predator of a higher order, and the explosion was probably taken as a challenge...]

Erik: [ dammit...] he was going downhill fast, but the creature wasn't slow either, and he saw the steel wolves hurriedly running away [what if I hide in the ice caves until it goes away?]

Rose: [what if it starts digging?]

Erik: [... then... I will dig the ice back into the ocean I guess...]

Rose: [...*the tip of the iceberg* you know that phrase right?]

Erik: [you have a point... well I can search the deepest ice cave and then dig sideways from there]

Rose: [then get to it, it will be here in thirty more seconds!...]

Erik saw a hole in the ice and ran to it, quickly reaching it as he looked back one last time, seeing twenty meters behind him a titanic hunk of living moving metal of a beast, with a pointy head, six eyes three on each side, sharp serrated interlocking teeth, a long neck, and eight legs along with an at least two hundred meters long body covered in thick spiky biometal armor of a pale silver color.

Erik jumped on the ice cave opening and just slid down on his back as the beast reached the mountain.

Erik: [well, at least it shouldn't be able to get down here-]

*CRACKHHH* however, the beast started digging the ice with its pointy head.

Erik: [Shit! that freaking... hmmm... armorlisk!]

Rose: [...what?]

Erik: [basilisk plus armor so it's an armorlisk!]

Rose: [okay... well it seems it's digging the ice so-]

*BOOM* the creature's frontal claws then came crashing down behind him, the claws sinking deep in the ice as he continued to slide forward.

Rose: [oh no! it's using its weight to jump on his frontal legs to break the ice... it's clever...]

Erik: [...like a freaking oversized fox jeez... this isn't funny...]

*SCRATCH! CRACK! SCRATCH!* scratching sounds were then heard from the top while he slid forward.

Erik: [damn, it's digging really fast!]

Rose: [go down faster then! those giant paws are like excavators!]

Erik nodded seriously "damn... it's all or nothing then!" he then flipped himself and slid down on the power armors chest, and then turned himself as his head now faced the slope.

Rose: [...what you are about to do... it's a bad idea...]

Erik: [...I know that already...] and activated the plasma turbines at half thrust, propelling the power armor quickly down the slippery green ice tube as it accelerated more and more [but I don't have a choice!].

Rose: [THAT'S ENOUGH SPEED! TURN THEM OFF!]

Erik quickly turned off the turbines, but he was already going down too fast, as the power armor slid down the walls and ceilings with any minuscule curve, going faster than a skeleton bobsled down a frozen track.

Erik: [Rose... how deep am I?]

Rose: [don't know, but luckily this hole is longer than the one you took before, the tunnel seems to be enlarging too...]

Erik tried to notice too, but he was going way too fast to see any difference on the walls properly.

Rose: [careful! you are approaching something ahead!]

A bright cyan and red glow were seen far down the tunnel as it reflected on the green walls, but he approached at high speeds and was soon able to see it, a glowing leech like mouth at the end of the tunnel open and waiting for him.

Rose: [avoid it!]

Erik: [I can't! but... I can pierce through!] he then restarted the engines and pointed his railgun forward, charging a shot and...

*ZWHAAAANGG!* *SKRYYYYYK!* the projectile pierced a clear hole through the strange creature as it bled a bright orange liquid that melted the ice as it screeched, and a second later Erik in his big power armor penetrated into that hole at high speeds, not even stopping for a second as he accelerated through the vascular system of the creature that started convulsing in agony.

Erik observed the boiling blood around him and grimaced: [what the hell is this thing...]

Rose: [probably a predator of the tree worms?]

Erik: [with such a high metabolism? that doesn't make sense...]

Rose: [hmm... maybe it's eating the algae in the ice then? if it melts and eats enough its plausible]

Erik: [that makes more sense... oh, the vein is getting bigger...]

Rose: [you are probably reaching a heart or some other kind of organ, you know what to do (･ิω･ิ)]

Erik: [yeah, rip and tear..., by the way, did you get the sample?]

Rose: [yeah, since you weren't in danger anymore I went and collected the samples, that loner worm was still there so I just cut off a piece of one of its tentacles, they have a symbiotic algae inside them, and the bio resin hardens with sunlight, maybe it's a defense so they can't be dug out of the ice... it was fascinating]

Erik: [algae like a jellyfish then, glad you are having fun...] and at that moment he came into a big space full of blood [seems like I reached the heart... time to do some damage then...] he set the railgun in semiautomatic mode and started shooting in all directions, shooting also charged plasma shots against the holes, the pulse of the beast quickened as the truck sized heart started beating faster, but Erik clung to one of the tears and used his drill to widen it and pass through it, in front of him now he could see a multitude of glowing transparent organs.

Rose: [guess you can either kill drilling a path through it, or... crawl through them... the choice is yours ¯\_(ツ)_/¯]

Erik thought for a moment and took a decision [well, I will try crawling] he opened one of the vials on his waist and closed it once it was full of the creature's blood [no need to kill it when I won't even be able to carry the corpse back... it would be such a waste...] he then started to carefully crawl through the convulsing organs carefully, as the beast was in a lot of pain, looking inside one of the organs he saw a green paste and liquid, along with three half digested tree worms.

Erik: [well, it does eat them after all]

Rose: [doubt any creature on this planet would reject a free meal to be fair ¯\_(´_ゝ`)_/¯ ]

Erik: [I don't doubt it... ugh... I'm really glad the tactile feedback can be dulled, this is disgusting...]

After fifty minutes of crawling between glowing organs and viscera, he finally reached the other side and drilled a hole, pushing himself out of the creature and just laying on the floor to rest.

Erik: [freaking finally! ugh... I'm exhausted...]

Rose: [I sense you better now, there should be a hole in the ice nearby, watch your surroundings!]

Erik: [ugh... fine...] he slowly stood up and saw he was now in an enormous ice cave, glowing spheres the size of cars stuck in lots of areas of the ceiling [...wow... this is pretty too...] there were some smaller truck sized orange glowing worms also chewing the green ice [hmm... ice chewers?]

Rose: [what?]

Erik: [the name, they chew ice so... ice chewers right?]

Rose: [simple but accurate I guess, I was thinking of thermoalgaevermis, but all names are fine..., mine's better of course, but yours is alright]

Erik: [eeh... sure...] he looked around and noticed a hole in the middle of the cave, so he walked up to it and finally saw the rippling of water below, like looking down a well [hmmm, I better test it...] and so he kicked a chunk of ice down and saw the ripple once it hit the surface, but it didn't resurface again [okay... I don't like that, any life forces down there?]

Rose: [actually... yeah, there's another big monster and other things...]

Erik grimaced: [alright, that's it... I will freaking dig my own hole!] he then walked to a corner and started drilling a hole.

Rose: [alright, have fun! (✿╹ω╹)]

--- Meanwhile at the surface ---

An entire regiment of fifty battle bots was present, some with armor and some without, in the middle of them a silver haired beauty wearing heavy armor and a big railgun cannon was annoyedly looking at the horizon as she muttered.

"well now he should be safe but... I better clear the area, he's organic, if his brain gets destroyed then it's game over for him..." she then looked at the battle bots and sighed "some are incomplete but... this should do for now..."

A cooper haired beauty behind her then said "if the commander's safe already, and we already took the samples, why don't we just go back?"

Rose turned back with an annoyed face "and leave such a danger to roam near the base?!, Amanda... I let you come but... shut up alright?"

Amanda: "...yes teacher..."

Rose: "good... that *Armorlisk* is really dangerous, if it digs under the ice it would be a huge threat to the base where Erik lives..."

Amanda: "oh... that makes sense"

Rose: "of course it makes sense! everything I say makes sense!"

Amanda: "..."

Rose: "see? you can actually shut up after all..., good job, now... it's time to hunt!"

Thirty bots were carrying a big cannon on their shoulders as they walked in a straight line through the purple and cyan grasses that covered the green icy plains, the only sound around coming from the cold wind around them that ruffled the strange plants around.

Rose gave a look at the cannon as she walked in the middle of the formation with a silent Amanda beside her, and muttered "it's not completely tested but... it should be enough" she then shrugged "and if not we will just run..."

Amanda beside her just nodded.

Rose: "...talk, it feels weird talking alone out loud"

Amanda: "hehe~ so you actually like me teacher- agh!" but as she teased Rose, Rose elbowed her on the stomach, sending her tumbling back for six meters on the ice.

Rose: "s-stupid! how could I like such a stupid student... I just hate silence... but that doesn't mean you can start saying stupid things.... huh?" she looked back as Amanda slowly stood up.

Amanda: "I see... I won't tease you again teacher... I'm sorry"

Rose: "hmph!... it's fine! let's go!"

Amanda stood up with a smile, and ran back after Rose, standing beside her again.