Chapter 150 - The Royal Palace (part 4)

*(mood song: "Shakira - Try Everything")

Outside the shadow claw's tribe, Thanya and her fiancee Alkban were calmly walking the outer tunnels with chemical lamps as their only light source, shining a cyan light over the rocky dark walls all around them. She had a carefree attitude while Alkban kept looking around worriedly at every shadow.

Alkban: "didn't the queen offer your father free upgrades? why do all this?"

Thanya: "it's... it's 'cause of my dad okay? he keeps deciding for me! I hate it! saying things like oh hey the world out there is too dangerous bla bla bla... train in sword fighting bla bla... I can take care of myself! so I will earn those upgrades by myself!"

Alkban: "Are you sure this ain't too much for you alone?"

Thanya: "I'm not alone! you are here too right? didn't you say you knew how to fight? well this is your opportunity to impress me, everyone wins~" her six legs carelessly tapping the ground loudly as she walked.

Alkban: "...yeah..., everyone wins... I don't think it will be that easy, my father told me tunnelers are vicious creatures you know?"

Thanya: "oh come on! how hard can it be? we just need to tie them while they sleep and done duh!" hold her arms up in frustration.

Alkban: "...I'm not sure if you are way too optimist or just naive..."

Thanya: "ugh! you are getting on my nerves! let's just go! I'm sure everything will work out..." walking randomly through the dark stone tunnels.

Alkban: "you can't just find-"

Thanya: "found them!"

Alkban's eyes opened wide: "what?!" he quickly followed after Thanya, and they saw two tunnelers completely knocked out sleeping "h-how?!"

Thanya snickered proudly: "I told you it would be easy!, now my father will see just how great I am! no more bodyguards and getting home early!"

Alkban: "what about the upgrades?"

Thanya: "hmm not really sure if I really want them actually, I like my body as it is..., I just wanted to prove my father wrong, not like he had to pay anything for it, I'm sure he won't mind..."

---

At the same time in the shadow claw tribe's royal palace.

Trebetuk sat on a chair outside the royal chambers, while his wife's wild moans came from inside.

Trebetuk couldn't help murmuring to himself: "she doesn't moan that way with me... I'm sure it's just the novelty, I can just learn some new moves any time..."

The moans then stopped, and his wife Alhona came tremblingly out of the chamber, falling on a couch, Trebetuk quickly rushed to her side.

Trebetuk: "are you okay my love?!"

Alhona: "that... was... hah... hah... amazing... hah... she said... it's your turn..."

Trebetuk's face paled: "she should have had enough with you... or since you liked it so much... why don't you-"

Alhona: "oh I'm definitely going back in there... but I need to rest first, she was so rough... get in there and learn, I want you to do me like that when we get home!"

Trebetuk's face grew resigned as he sighed: "sigh... alright my love..." crossing the door entrance as he dragged all his feet behind him.

Inside Rose waited on a huge mattress as she stroked her huge cock.

Trebetuk paled even more but he then saw Rose chuckling and showing him her pussy.

Queen Erika (Rose): "let's see... if you can make me moan the way I did wife then that will be it, how about that~?"

Trebetuk's face grew determined as his meat pole stood at attention, he concentrated and imagined Rose as his wife: "okay, I'm ready..."

Queen Erika (Rose): "good~ good~ let's see that determination~"

---

Meanwhile, at the tunnels below the old octopeople city, Erik was facing a behemoth of a monster crab.

The crab constantly emitted clacking sounds as if mocking him, although Erik knew it was probably some form of echolocation.

The crab looked in the direction of Erik and advanced in his direction totally unfazed.

Erik: "He ain't even taking me seriously? well then... TAKE THIS!" he fell to his right knee and fired a rocket at the creature as it left a big trail of bubbles behind.

But as a response to the projectile, the crab just calmly lifted its right claw as a shield.

*BOOOM!* the rocket impacted the claw as expected, creating a huge cloud of bubbles *SKREEEE!* but the crab wasn't calm anymore, as the bubbles cleared, a huge crack was revealed of the claw, along with a football size hole that was profusely bleeding.

The crab stopped being lazy instantly, as it sprung forward with a screech, as thousands of smaller crabs fell from the ceiling, along with another equally large but sleek crab man with a pair of huge sharp pincers that sneakily fell behind Erik.

Before any of them could do anything though...

*ROOAAAARRRR!!!!* the drones reproduced a giant monster call on a loop from all around the cavern, completely disabling the crab man's sight.

Erik then rolled to the side as a big sharp claw descended where he had just stood, also disabling his sight, as that had created a huge cloud of mud in the water.

Rose: [Careful!] Rose warned him, but it was too late, as one of the claws hit Erik on his left side and sent him flying, heavily hitting a descending crab man and crushing it onto the cave wall.

All the group: "Erik!"

They all shouted worriedly, but Inky didn't falter and quickly ran in her power armor, avoiding the confused and blinded crab men as she finally reached Erik's side.

She observed his face and saw a trickle of blood on his lip.

Inky: "Erik! are you okay?"

Erik was on the floor but he slowly sat with his back against the wall, while Inky killed any crab man getting too close: "ugh... that... definitely hurt..."

Erik: [that bastard... did it break anything? it's hard to breathe... ]

Rose: [...surprisingly no... but your lungs emptied too quickly and too much, that's why it will be hard to breathe for a while... crouch down and you should be able to breathe properly soon when your diaphragm recovers]

Erik did as told and crouched, feeling a bit better as his breath came back.

Rose: [...I must say you have become quite durable, even the power armor got dented]

Erik: [yeah? I guess so...] his lungs filled with air again as his diaphragm recovered, he observed the armor and it had a seven centimeters dent, luckily it didn't get perforated at least.

Inky: "Erik! talk to me!" was still frantic though.

Erik stood up and calmed her: "it's fine, just a bruise... luckily I'm sturdier now..." he then gave a voice command "status report enable"

The power armor quickly gave a diagnosis *diagnosis complete, cracks detected on three side ribs, along with internal hemorrhage, rest is recommended*

Erik: "no time for that, inject one ml of combat stimulants"

power armor AI: *understood*

The stimulants quickly took effect, making him somewhat recover, as his mind cleared of the pain.

Erik: "sigh... that's a bit better" he observed then the surroundings.

The crabs around them seemed to be adapting to the noise though, as they started to move somewhat accurately again, slowly surrounding Inky.

Erik: "Inky, we need to retreat to the group!"

Inky: "huh? you are better?"

Erik: "yeah, I'm fine don't worry..." he then observed the other side of the cavern and saw Timberly and the elders decimating the confused crab men. His eyes met with them as Timberly's booming voice resonated.

Timberly: "ERIK! ARE YOU FINE?!"

Erik tapped his neck and said through the radio: "yes, I'm fine, no need to shout..."

Timberly: "MY HANDS ARE BUSY!"

Erik: [... hmm, that's a fair point...]

Rose: [... fine, I will think of something, but don't get distracted, the crabs are starting to move despite the sound]

Erik: [yeah... I don't get how...] he observed the two big crab men, the tanky one was turning to the octopeople as it deflected Timberly's spear hits, the force was tremendous, but they only left scratches on the thick carapace as it shrugged off the normal explosive ammunition.

The sharp clawed one though was going in Erik's direction, making him mumble "how the hell..." but then he noticed, the crab man seemed to look at one of the mushrooms in the ceiling "what if... hmmm it's worth a shot..."

*(sharp clawed one: https://www.deviantart.com/kaliope1/art/Kalatraxis-212953980 something like this)

Erik tapped his neck once again: "shoot at the mushrooms on the ceiling! shoot them off!"

The octopeople quickly pointed their weapons at the ceiling while the bots kept the small crab men away.

And Amelia soon gave the order: "OPEN FIRE!"

*BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!* amidst the explosions, the mushrooms were quickly cleared, and the result was immediate, as the crabs lost their sense of direction once again.

Erik: "phew~ good thing I was right..." he then looked at the tanky crab man, and the nimble sharp clawed crab man and started mumbling to himself "now... how do I deal with you two... the tanky one is barely taking damage and the sharp one keeps avoiding and jumping around... i could rocket the tanky one to oblivion but... that would be wasteful... maybe a precise rocket between the eyes... but then there's no way to hit the fast one..."

Rose: [what about making them attack each other?]

Erik: [nah, they seem able to smell each other...]

Rose: [... a rocket then?]

Erik: [yeah, but Timberly is already keeping the tanky one busy, who will-]

Rose: [don't worry about that, look up~]

Erik did as told and saw Rose perched on the ceiling as her left power armor hand stabbed through the solid stone, and a glowing bubbling mace on her right.

Rose: [watch this~!] she let herself fall as he grabbed her mace with both hands, at that moment the sharp crab man was walking below her, and all the bots shot at it, making it stop in place for a moment... it's last moment.

Rose: "ORAAAA!!!!" Rose fell right behind it, and sank her mace deeply onto its head as she fell, using her entire body's strength.

Rose: [see? that was ea-]

Erik: [carefull!]

Erik warned her, but thankfully Rose had lots of points of view, so she dodged as the sharp crab man stood up, now a glowing mushroom glowing on its head.

Rose: "che! cheating bastard!" her face was full of anger as the crab man swiped a pincer at her, but... instead of dodging, she moved forward and grabbed the claw, just sliding slightly to the side and side kicking the crab man on the chest with enough force to crack its exoskeleton.

Rose: "NOW I'M ANGRY!" her power armor started emitting bubbles all around it, her strength seemed to have increased exponentially, as she started to twist the crab man's claw while she hugged it "GET DOWN!" she turned and planted her right knee on the ground, effectively throwing the crab man to the floor, she then rotated with her mace and smashed the mushroom head to bits, repeating the action two more times to be sure.

Rose: "NOW STAY DEAD!"

Erik looked at the remaining armoured crab, scratches from Timberly's spear kept accumulating on its remaining functional claw, but Erik could also see that Timberly was getting tired slowly: "now... how should I kill that in the best possible way..."