Chapter 127 - The Roar

*(mood song: "Sia - Unstoppable")

Rose bot *leave it to me! ( •̀ڡ•́ ) ☆*

Drones then came out of his back, glowing in a blue color, and then glowed in a cyan blue as dozens of plasma blasts obliterated the wall, creating a plume of rock dust, bubbles, and molten stones clouding the water.

They left some bots guarding the entrance while setting an insulation layer and lots of explosives along with a signal antenna as the signals have a hard time traveling underwater, and went inside, finding thousands of fungus fused beasts lying shriveled on the ground near the entrance, shrieking looks on their faces, from once upon a time fish, to crab men and other creatures, all of them deformed and shriveled with cracked skins.

Erik snickered "heh! that's what you get..., but... just in case... Rose, play the sound I prepared, everyone your sound insulation, we will communicate with the suits' radios" turning his back to the tunnel.

Inky nodded and tapped on her helmet.

Rose: *done, playing now in 3...2...1...*

*ROOOOOAAAAAAAAAARRRR!!!!* a humongous roar emerged from Erik's back, the sound making the water reverberate around them and traveling down the tunnel, the waves it made in the water palpable, hitting the shriveled up corpses and making them collapse, revealing small tentacles still moving slightly inside them.

Erik turned around and said "heh! just as I thought..." *BANG BOOM! BANG BOOM! BANG BOOM!* three consecutive shots and explosions resonating with a cloud of bubbles in the aftermath of the explosions.

Inky: "by the way... what was that roar from?"

Erik: "oh, from a movie I like, Godzilla's 89th movie, the roar of space Godzilla, they were in the 125th movie when I left"

Inky: "Oh? I will watch them once we are back then"

Erik: "Yeah, we can watch together, anyways... Rose play Godzilla roars playlist"

Rose: *understood! 3...2...1... playing* [ ( •̀ ω •́ )✧ ]

The roars started playing and they felt the vibrations on their suits but only faintly heard it.

Erik: [great job with the sound insulation Rose...]

Rose: [ Leave it to me (✿ ͡ ◡╹) ]

Meanwhile, a group of fifty shadow claw soldiers had secretly followed them, but...

*ROOOOARRRR, RUUUOOOAARRRRGH!* lots of monstruos titanic roars erupted from the tunnel one after the other, making the veteran soldiers pale and tremble in place, horrified to even imagine what could be there now in that tunnel.

They looked at each other's pale faces "...the lord... fighting beasts like those... it truly deserves to be the boss of the queen".

Other deeply nodded "indeed, the queen wouldn't bow to someone weak... we must tell the others, everyone needs to know this so they don't make a mistake like that geezer alchemist Beritkan... the lord can't be offended..." the faces of everyone turning solemn as they ran away.

Back at the caves, the group was descending the dark tunnel with their lights activated as they continued seeing corpses on their way, the tentacles in the walls shriveled and cracked, and the floor sticky due to black mucus spilled from all the tentacles.

Erik: [hmm seems like the Chlorine eroded them until they ruptured...-]

Rose: [hehehe~]

Erik: [hm? did anything happen?]

Rose: [the roars had a secondary effect, some mice following us got really scared and ran back to their tribe~ (✿□ᴗ□)]

Erik: [oh? I didn't notice we were being followed... well not like many things can hurt me while inside this, anyways let's keep going]

They kept walking and arrived at the first tunnel blockade, as he expected some new tentacles were coming through the gaps in the rubble by now, but that had an unexpected result as it plugged the chlorine inside and so it concentrated more, the floor having big amounts of black fluid and dead tentacles.

Erik thought to himself 'hmm, seems like it tried to plug the holes actually... quite the unexpected level of intelligence... well at least it should have suffered plenty, and the sludge left behind is dead so even if it touches it won't be fatal.... I'm glad I didn't bring organics just in case...' he then looked at Rose "please seal it, better not take any risks"

Rose bot *alright* drones came out of his back, but this time their glow was dimmer and they just shot faint concentrated lines of plasma, a cone of bubbling steam forming around the plasma beam as they quickly soldered the stones together *done commander!*

Amanda: *hey, that's how I call him... you call him Erik*

One of Rose's bots snickered at her while shrugging *I bet commander doesn't mind, right commander~*

Erik: "it's stupid and I don't care, let's continue" advancing with Inky.

Rose bot: *che, you are no fun...*

Erik: "We are not here for fun, but on a mission"

Rose bot: *...fine, I know...*

A long time passed and they were about to reach the fire cave but... suddenly a long black tentacle erupted from the side in front of them, to then retreat and come out again but forked and connected to the bodies of dozens of crab man bodies, with Kraktar in their midst, all of them now having extra body parts or missing body parts replaced by dripping black tentacles, smug looks on their faces, seemingly about to say something but...

*BANG BOOM!* a big projectile blew Kraktar to the ground and then exploded his body to bits from the inside.

Erik: "heh! do you expect me to just listen to your bullshit?"

But then... a huge amount of black tentacles reformed into the general shape of Kraktar, the fire tribes old leader who has run off somewhere during the last expedition, his voice raspy as he started to talk from his now tentacled dripping maw "you have angered the great mother and she won't forgive you this time... hahaha you stupid crab queen, you will be consumed like us, but the great mother will absorb your brain and-" *BANG BOOM! BANG BOOM! BANG BOOM!*

Erik: "so annoying, these monsters don't know their place... Rose, remove the sound volume limiters"

Rose bot: *but the suits won't isolate so much! your eardrums will rupture for sure and will go deaf! even if you can regenerate it will still be extremely dangerous*

Amanda: *Indeed, I helped.. well I saw the design and it can even reach 300 decibels, you will only feel around 170 inside that suit, but it will still be really painful... according to calculations at least...*

Erik: "it's fine I will still hear a bit through my bones, it's just like having my head underwater, I will be fine" he then looked at Inky "you will probably experience more with your suit, your body is like steel so you should be able to endure, are you ready?"

Inky nodded: "always!" and smiled confidently.

Erik: "alright Rose, do it!"

Enormous jiggly tentacles emerging by the end of the tunnel as Erik and everyone started opening fire, Rose's bots explosive harpoons, her plasma gun drones, Inky's and Amanda's bulky sodium hand cannon rifles, and Erik's automatic hand cannon.

Rose bot: *sigh, get ready then, I've chosen the loudest roar on the list, 3...2...1... play!*

*ROAA- piiiiiiii* just a second after activation Erik felt a sharp pain all over his head as his eardrums popped, his eye capillary veins popped leaving him with blood red eyes, and his nose started bleeding, a beeping sound all he could hear as the pain from his hears made his head dizzy, Inky beside him falling on her knees she suffered a similar fate, even her gums filling with blood.

The tentacles suffered the most fortunately, their connected mind avatars dissolving or falling to the floor, as the tentacles composing their outsides and their insides started rupturing as sound travels much faster and efficiently underwater, only the bigger tentacles capable of somewhat endure it as they flopped on the ground with the continuous sound wave pushing them back, Erik turned his back directing the sound at them while shooting backwards using a shoulder camera.

Erik: [this sound system needs to be added to a tower shield or anything, or maybe in the chest area... this design doesn't seem too efficient-]

Rose: [No, that would considerably lower defense on the chest area, this way you can shoot at any forward enemies while the sound protects your back from enemy attacks, forcing them to attack your front, don't question my designs! (/ `⌒´)/ ︵ ┻━┻ ]

Erik: [I was just making a suggestion... well forget it, that should be enough for now]

Turning around and seeing the tunnel that was by now completely painted black in black sticky fluid and pieces of their sticky flesh, he shot a couple more shots for the strugglers as he observed the avatars try to reform, only a mouth forming in the end, a gurgling voice escaping "you... worm... y..ou... will... regret-" *BANG BOOM! BANG BOOM! BANG BOOM!*

Erik: "shut up already... jeez freaking abominations..." he turned his head to the rest and said "alright let's continue, don't worry about this thing, even if it regenerates it can't follow us inside"

They all nodded and walked the last ten minutes, reaching the lava cave, behind them tentacles full of leech like teeth stopped at the entrance, some eyes popping on them and looking at them in hatred as a mouth emerged once again, talking on a shrill loud voice "you... won't escape... again-" *BANG BOOM!*

Erik: "WILL YOU SHUT THE FUCK UP!? MY EARS ARE LITERALLY REGENERATING RIGHT NOW AND IT HURTS LIKE HELL SO SHUT." *BANG BOOM!* "THE." *BANG BOOM!* "FUCK." *BANG BOOM!* "UP!!!" *BANG BOOM! BANG BOOM! BANG BOOM!* "...disgusting mutated... I don't even know what the fuck that is to curse at it!, it's just IT, lot's of disgusting with an extra touch of disgusting... it's asking to get killed" the creature starting to regenerate at the entrance.

Inky: "...it did indeed look dangerous, but... I don't see how we would even kill it..."

Amanda: *well don't worry commander, these alien alloys seem to be almost organic in their composition with millions of layers, it's mind blowing how it was manufactured, but they will keep you protected*

Rose bot: *hehe~ yeah it's normal for you to be unable to figure them out as-*

Erik: "for what I can tell the process could be replicated back on earth, for example, to create a chest plate we would need a fired clay or graphite surface and put it inside a plasma chamber, coating it with atomic layers of iron, carbon, and silica to create with maybe millions of layers a composite material, it would be really expensive but it's definitely possible to do"

Rose bot: *..oh yeah? why don't you do so then?* the bot shrugging with * ¯\_(´_ゝ`)_/¯* appearing on its display face.

*BANG BOOM!* Erik sighed shooting a wild boulder crab man that was getting too close as he calmly walked towards the alien facility "well... I could make something similar, but there seems to also be synthetic materials and metals too inside those alloys, that I don't know how to even make"

Rose bot: *well, I will give you a clue~ some things just can't be found at normal pressures*

Erik: "hmm I guess even steel could get stronger if you squeeze it tighter into a new denser form..." he came to the entrance of the alien facility "well, let's talk about that later, we are already here", he looked up confirming that turrets hadn't come out this time, as his chest plate glowed and the facility responded, a cyan membrane covered the twelve meters tall door as it opened up, keeping the water at bay and letting them pass through it, at the other side a dark descending hallway, illuminated by cyan glowing lines on the walls on some parts, the air damp and stale with scars and dust everywhere.

Erik: "what the hell... let's go down, watch your steps"

Rose: [if you like it I could restore the particle shield at the base entrance after we reactivate the forge]

Erik: [that would be great, and safer for everyday use actually]

They all nodded and went down, soon reaching a big hall with a destroyed fountain and broken statues of different species, a dense layer of dust covering everything.

Erik rolled one of the statue heads on the floor and saw it looked similar to a reptile, like the one he had seen in the emergency vídeo "well Rose, now what?"

Rose bot: *first we need to restore the power and then my connection to the facility, with that I should be able to start making repairs to other systems like life support on the forge and start the plasma drill to start extracting molten material to process* the bot getting in front of the group *follow me, we need to descend three floors to reach the power area-* right then the lights flickered *what the... you should have started the emergency reactor when going in, there's no way it would have fails so early...*

Erik: "Yeah, it makes no sense for it to fail so easily... stay sharp! something could be lurking around..."

Inky and Amanda nodded as they all followed Rose's bot in front, descending stairs in severe disrepair.

They passed the first floor that was already almost in complete darkness as they had to activate their lights.

Amanda: *wait... did you guys hear that? it was like water dripping... I will check in infrared.... no, I don't see anything...*

Erik got annoyed "you know what, I'm half deaf and hate it when the monster just jumps at people, so if there's something here we will give it a good scare hehe~ Rose, make a roar at 150 decibels, that should give anything here a good scare and rock the walls a bit"

Rose's bot in front nodded *Alright, 3... 2... 1... playing!*

*ROOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRR* the walls reverberated and the air gut dusty, and then... *krye! kryeeee!* screeches started resonating all around as from under the shelves, furniture and every nook and cranny came cyan glowing slugs, quickly squirming downstairs as they screeched.

Erik: "ugh... I hate slimy things-"

Inky punched Erik in the waist, hurting her own hand "ow! what did you just say?"

Erik: "...Oh, of course I don't mind yours my love, it's just slimy monsters that bother me, so let's quickly follow them, let's go, watch where you step, the floor is slippery now"

Inky: "hmmm... hmph! okay let's go then, you better watch your steps too"

Erik pretended not to hear as he caught one of the slugs into his big metallic hand and was about to open it "let's see what you-" *ZAP!* but at that very moment a current exploded from his closed fist, traveling all over the power armor and getting absorber by the power core of the armor "...wtf... an electric slug?" he opened his hand and saw the slug now listless, the little fist sized thing a dark tone of purple almost black, dots and lines of cyan glowing now in a dim cyan color "...interesting..." he grabbed it and put it inside a cylindrical container on his waist, "let's see..." and released a zap of electricity into the transparent silica jar that had a metallic lid, the slug instantly deployed a chameleon like tongue, sticking to the lid and seemingly absorbing the electricity, leaving everyone surprised "...so these are basically living organic batteries..."

Rose bot: *I guess I know how the energy shortage came to be...*

Erik: "well, don't relax, they could unite or maybe have bigger ones, let's go down"