Dinosaur Hunters

Dinosaur Valley

Since the Mochapult was out of commission, Anthony, Aisa, and Apis rode a boat that Fybi was quickly pulling to shore with a rope. The cannons of enemy ships were missing the small boat thanks to Fybi's quick maneuvering, and they were able to arrive at shore. "I shalt return to defend the ship." Fybi said. "Best of luck to thee, Anthony!" And she soared off.

"I doubt many Shandians had the honor of hunting real live dinosaurs." Aisa said confidently. "I sure hope not, because I wanna be the first!"

"Just don't mark yourself with Blood Berry this time." Apis replied.

"And leave the boss dino to me!" Anthony fist-palmed. "You can have the small fry."

"Sorry, Anthony, but I only eat big!" Aisa winked. (Play "Fossil Falls" from Mario Odyssey!)

Stage 40: Dinosaur Valley

Mission: Defeat General Scales!

The trio raced to the jungle, where Hightops (brachiosaurs) were blissfully eating the leaves off towering trees. The kids chose not to bother them, but encountered a gate sealed by magic. The gate's design depicted a tree, so the key must have been in one of the trees. Apis telepathically spoke to the Hightops one at a time, the dinos lowering their heads for Aisa to climb on and raise her to the trees. Aisa was able to swing some vines from one and collect a chest, but she soon found the Hightop with a key. The gate was unlocked, bringing them to a narrow passage with tall grass.

"Yow!" Anthony was bit by a Venus Mantrap hidden in the grass, and he and Aisa could sense multiple more. However, Apis simply communicated with the plant cells and told them to not attack. Past the small trench was a jungle, wherein Lightfoot pranced above the branches, shooting arrows. Aisa's archery was needed here, but the Lightfoot would still attack after being knocked down, leaving Anthony to KO them with boulders. They advanced to an open field with Earthwalkers (triceratops). Sharpclaw were alerted by their arrival and mounted the Earthwalkers, charging at the intruders.

Anthony stomped up boulders, the Earthwalkers ramming them as the Sharpclaw flung off, Aisa kicking the pirates into submission. "I say we ride one of these bad boys ourselves!" Aisa declared, mounting an Earthwalker. Her friends joined as Apis asked him to go as Aisa instructed. They rode around the field, ramming large Sharpclaw with big shields. They rode to the nearby cliff, ramming a line of Guardclaw to go up a sloped path to the upper part of the field. This field was populated by Thorntails, Nodosaurus-like dinos who were harmlessly eating grass. There was a nearby farm that a Sharpclaw was guarding, so the kids rode over.

"('ey, lads and lasses! Do me a favor and round up these Thorntails for me. There's money in it if you do.)" Apis translated his language.

"I would use my earthbending, but this area feels chi-blocked." Anthony mentioned.

"That's okay, we got this!" Aisa smirked, riding the Earthwalker around to ram the Thorntails in the farm's direction. The harmless dinos cried and ran in to safety. "(Thanks, brats! As a bonus, I won't tell the boss you're here. Heh, but I reckon he already knows.)" The Sharpclaw instructed a Thorntail to dig up a buried chest, which they promptly took.

They tore down a line of fences leading to a wide road, which, to their terror, was guarded by T-rexes. The first Redeye charged, Aisa quickly steering the Earthwalker right. Their steed scraped the ground, ready to ram the mighty carnivore head-on! When the Redeye charged, so did the Earthwalker, the collision knocking the T-rex senseless. They repeated this for the other Redeye in the area, the mightiest predators falling before their steed. "ROOOOAAAAAR!" A massive Redeye burst out of a cave up ahead, having smelled the prey coming.

"That's not General Scales, is it?!" Apis panicked.

"No, but he seems pretty high up on the food chain." Aisa replied. "And I would be remiss if I didn't hunt such big game." The Redeye King stormed, Aisa forcefully dodging the steed around and running past. "Take the wheel." Aisa told Anthony, hopping to the backseat and about-facing. She studied the pursuing carnivore intently, searching for a weakness. She shot arrows at the eyes, but a simple blink was enough to block them. Though Anthony was able to steer around the obstacles, the T-rex was catching up, his jaws wide open to swallow them all. Aisa grabbed her Conache Pumpkin from her satchel and chucked the iron fruit up his throat.

Redeye shut his mouth, struggling to chew the fruit, but still determined to stop his prey, he raised his head and smashed—Aisa thwarted him with the Impact Dial, absorbing the force. Redeye raised his head in confusion, lowering to their level to bite the Earthwalker's rear, but Aisa released the force back, knocking the beast dizzy as he tripped. Aisa ordered the steed to halt, jumping off and leaping onto Redeye's head. She raised a brow at a strange indent on his head, shooting an arrow into it. The beast roared and shook her off, and Aisa quickly ran back to mount the Earthwalker, continuing its escape. They were nearing a cliff, seeing a Barrel Cannon, and the Earthwalker squeezed in as they launched across a river, bouncing a stairway of giant mushrooms before landing on a new cliff.

The Earthwalker expressed exhaust, so Apis patted its head and said, "You can go rest now." They proceeded to a mountainous zone with Cloudrunner nests. The path was narrow and rugged, and thanks to Klammy's modifications, the pterodactyls were able to drop exploding eggs in their path. Some of the eggs hit peaks to drop boulders on them, but Anthony caught and chucked the boulders up at the Cloudrunners. They arrived at a pool of tar, seeing dinosaur skulls bobbing on the surface and using them to bounce across. They rested on an island, gasping as three Bone Dragon heads rose out of the tar. They spat fireballs at the kids, and Anthony ripped out chunks of the foothold to toss at their heads, doing so resourcefully to leave them space to stand on.

The Bone Dragon was revealed to be a three-headed entity, its unconscious corpse floating limp in the tar. Apis saw three Cloudrunners on a nest island and called, "Excuse me! Could you guys help pull us across?" The pterodactyls shrugged and flew to grab a head in their talons, the kids riding it like a boat. Sharpclaw saw them from watchtowers, screeching as they launched bombs into the tar river. The Cloudrunners steered the boat around the bombs, and Aisa noticed a floating chest and pulled it up when she had the chance. They arrived at a shore, the kids disembarking as the Cloudrunners flew off.

"ROOOOAAAR!" Redeye King came stomping from the left, the kids bolting in the opposite direction. Having learned his lesson, the rex wouldn't try to hammer them, but since Aisa sacrificed her Conache, he could hopefully snatch them in his teeth. Anthony opened gaps in the ground, but it only slowed the beast slightly. Enemy Cloudrunners dropped egg bombs to hinder their escape, but one of the eggs was a dud. Aisa thought fast and threw the egg at Redeye's feet, exploding under his weight as he fell. Aisa quickly leapt onto the head, shot an arrow into the weak spot, and stomped it in like a nail into wood! The beast cried and shook Aisa off, Anthony using a rock-jab to propel Aisa in their direction, the Shandian landing on her feet and running with her friends.

The trio leapt across floating skulls over another tar pit, the king hesitant to follow as he risked sinking. The crew arrived at the shore of another jungle, catching their breath. They wandered into a maze, Anthony using Seismic Sense to find their way and alerting them of Guardclaw that were patrolling. They'd rather not risk fighting the guards and causing more trouble, so it was easier to sneak by, succeeding in bypassing the maze. Before their eyes stood a fortress with Scales' likeness at the head.

The kids bravely marched to the entrance, where two Boneclaw attacked with giant bones. Anthony pelted rocks at one's bone until it shattered and he took him down, and Aisa slipped behind the other Sharpclaw and choked his neck in her legs. In the first yard of the base, cavemen called Unga-Bunga attacked the group with earthbending, to which Anthony considered a warm-up and fought with superior technique. As they fought, Aisa felt an aura of despair to the right, Apis following her in that direction. They entered a yard where a huge Styracosaurus mother was moaning, held down by multiple chains. Apis translated her cries:

"(Please! Stop poisoning my children! I'm the one you should punish!)"

"(What do ya think we're doin', fatty?! If you won't fight for us, then you'll fight for your children's health!)" yelled a Sharpclaw.

It seemed that her children were munching a pink-skinned alien girl, acid leaking from her skin as she cried. "Hey, Apis… that girl smells kinda good." Aisa said, trying to restrain herself. "I-I think this is just like what happened to April!"

"Then we need water!" Apis stated, plugging Aisa's nose with gumballs to blot her sense. "Does that help?"

"Yeah, it does!" Aisa started shooting the Sharpclaw with arrows and Apis her S.C.A.M.P.P.. The pirates revealed to have extendable metal claws, slashing the girls from a further range, but Aisa evaded and dealt the finishing kicks to the jaws. She used an arrow to undo the dinosaur's shackles. "Mrs. Dinosaur, spit on the alien!" Apis told her.

"(My name is Scrotty, but okay!)" The mother hurried to the alien and drooled a waterfall of saliva on her. The luscious scent disappeared, so her children stopped chewing. "(Oh, thank you, girls. General Scales used some strange power to make my children crave this poisonous creature.)"

"We think we understand what that power is." Apis replied. "We think Scales can eat peoples' blood and compel other people to wanna eat them. The same thing happened with our friend, but when Melody started healing her with water, the effect disappeared. I guess it erases the scent. …Anyway, if you stick with us, we'll get your kids treated on our ship."

"(That would be kind of you…)"

Aisa stored the sobbing alien girl (Mina Ashido) in the Cube for safekeeping. They regrouped with Anthony and advanced up the base. The next yard seemed empty and covered in soil, but the exit was sealed by a magic barrier. Anthony felt movement under the soil, and before long, serpent dinos called Snaplak popped up, spitting acid before quickly retreating. Since Aisa's sharpshooting was better, she waited for each Snaplak to come up and shot them. When they were all dealt with, Aisa felt a larger Snaplak rising. The boss serpent spewed a beam of acid, the group evading as Aisa pelted it with arrows. When the beast fell, the barrier dispelled.

"ROOOAAAR!" The familiar cry of King Redeye was heard, and they could feel the T-rex charge through the base's entrance. Since the path opened was straightforward, the group ran for the goal. Aisa shot arrows at any Snaplak that shot up, Anthony kicked stones at incoming Sharpclaw, knowing the Redeye knew exactly where they were going. Unfortunately, their path would continue up a simple wooden ladder. "Darn it, this area's chi-blocked." Anthony noticed. "'Guess we better start climbing!"

They ascended the ladder as fast as possible, though by the time they were halfway up, Redeye was storming up the path. His eyes were sharp on the climbing kids, possessing every intention to ram the wall and bring the ladder down. "Aisa, get ready to attack!" Apis said.

"You have a plan?"

"Yep! Live bait. Wah-waaaahh!" The Arceist pretended to fall off the ladder, screaming.

"APIS, NOOOO!" Aisa cried in horror, wondering what she was thinking. She decided to tear off a bar of the ladder and quickly sharpen it.

The T-rex's jaws were wide open, eager to finally welcome one of the kids. Apis shut her eyes and focused her telepathy: Hey, is that T-rex in a bikini here to see the big guy?

The voice in his mind piqued the king's interests, turning to find this alleged bikini T-rex—Apis landed on his back, holding on tight as he whirled around in attempt to shake her off. Taking this cue, Aisa dove off the ladder, positioning herself at the perfect angle to land where his head would be. She crashed on the head, shoved the wooden stake into his weak spot, and stomped it in with both feet. "ROOAAR…ROAR…RR…Rrr…roooooo…" The Redeye King fell dead. Aisa stood with pride on his head, Apis viewing her friend with admiration.

"You did it, Aisa! You killed the biggest T-rex in the valley!"

"You're darn right I did! But say, didn't you say you would never use your power to lead animals to their doom?"

"Hey, he was gonna eat us! I can break my moral for just a teeny bit, right?"

"Hehe, okay, Apis. Either way, I think we both earned that tribal mark."

"All right! …But seriously, no Blood Berry."

Anthony sighed with relief, reaching the top of the ladder himself. He was at the top of the fortress, built atop a massive stone pillar. Twenty Guardclaw charged at him, but Anthony thrusted rock-jabs backward to send them falling off the ledge. The entrance to Scales' lair was magically locked, but by using Seismic Sense, he was able to find a buried flagpole. He brought it up to full height, then flung himself to the top to swap the Sharpclaw flag with a Big Grin. The key was attached to the pole, so Anthony took it to open Scales' chamber. (End song.)

"General Scales was the most dangerous criminal on Planet Sauria." Jerome briefed to the operatives during the meeting. "All other dinosaurs fear his strength, so it was no wonder K. Rool sought him out. He has killed children and poisoned rivers for the sake of forcing more dinosaurs to join him."

Anthony remembered this background info as he barged into the chamber with slight worry. He couldn't imagine what goes on in a coldblooded predator's room, probably flooded with blood, scraps of body parts, and… drawings?

There were stone slabs leaning around the chamber, all depicting a chubby pigtailed girl with a cute smile. Their quality was what Anthony expected from cavemen, but to think the fearsome General Scales would have such a hobby. "(Grah… why can't I get this girl out of my head?)" Anthony was facing the back of the tall, imposing Kommander himself, sitting cross-legged at a desk as he inscribed another image into a slab with a sharp rock. "(There must have been something about her blood… Could it be that she is a Linlin? Have I tasted their strange candy blood? If she is, maybe we can find her. Yes… perhaps we will meet again, my sweet meat.)"

Anthony wished he waited for Apis to understand his Dino Talk. "Uh…General Scales?"

The beast gasped. "RAAAH!" He reflexively slammed his sword against the ground, slicing an airwave that barely missed a fear-stricken Anthony. "(YOU! No one is allowed in General Scales' cabin!)"

Anthony shook back to reality and said, "Well, I'd hate to use your art collection against you, so come outside if you wanna fight me!" He flung himself away with a rock-jab.

"(GET BACK HERE!)" The carnivore chased with surprising speed, swiping his left, artificial claw and lifting Anthony by the vest. "(You're small, but you smell like a savory piece of meat. You'll have me craving for more…)"

He brought Anthony to his mouth, but Anthony pulled up a stalagmite to stab his arm and free himself. "You'll have to eat this first!" Anthony formed a giant statue of himself and hid in the chest. Rivaling Scales' size, he balled his boulder fists.

"(A savory piece indeed. I wonder how your blood will smell to the vermin…)" (Play Bowser's Theme from Mario 64!)

Boss fight: Kremling Dinosaur King, SCALES

Anthony threw stone fists at Scales, the Sharpclaw enduring as he stabbed through the statue with his blade. Anthony backed up and sharpened his left arm into a blade, clashing Scales' before landing a stab in the hip. Scales hardened his prosthetic claws and slashed Anthony's statue to pieces, the boy escaping just in time and thrusting a Stone Fist up at Scales' jaw. The dino whacked the stone aside and charged, leaping for a stab that Anthony dodged, but Scales forced the sword back up in his direction, Anthony getting cut while evading. Scales licked the blood off his sword, Anthony encasing himself in a statue.

A stone shell couldn't hide his scent from Snaplaks, the serpent dinosaurs already burrowing through the stone and ambushing Anthony inside his own control room. He hastily shattered the statue to blow the Snaplaks away, but exposing himself allowed for a forceful tail-whip from Scales, Anthony flying across the field. A group of Snaplaks were already waiting where he would land, jaws wide open. Anthony willed that ground to split apart, the Snaplaks splitting up just long enough for him to land in open ground and thrust rock-jabs at the serpents. Scales performed a mighty leap, Anthony dodging his stab once more as he dug his hand underground, pulled up a giant Stone Fist, and smashed Scales' left foot.

Scales only felt mild pain and swiped his claw at Anthony, who evaded and stomped the ground to drop Scales in a ditch. He sensed more Snaplaks burrowing up at him, stomping the ground to keep them at bay. "I gotta shake this scent off me. I need to find some water…" He used Seismic Sense to search underground, but had to run and throw boulders up at Scales to keep the beast at bay. After a minute of searching, he found a body of water deep underground, so he sent his chi underneath and willed the earth to bring the water up like a fountain. Anthony washed himself, erasing Scales' spell as the Snaplaks stopped coming.

Anthony brought up a stone wall to push Scales, but the Sharpclaw's strength was able to counter his bending and push back. Anthony poured more power, but was shocked by Scales' rising strength, ultimately forced to burrow underground to evade the sliding wall. Anthony sprung up and stabbed a stalagmite into his rear, the beast bellowing and slashing an airwave, the human kicking backward on an impulse, but the remnants of the fading wave managed to cut his belly. Anthony quickly tore out some soil to patch his wound and buried any blood that spilled.

Thinking his tail was a soft spot, Anthony burrowed underground to develop his strategy. However, Scales could still smell him and stabbed into the ground, Anthony yelping as he barely avoided the first stab, but was more cautious in dodging further stabs. Scales backed away, sensing Anthony trying to dig under him, but stayed close enough to deal stabs. Anthony sent his chi forward to sink Scales, then enclosed the ground around his feet to trap him. Anthony dug around and emerged behind the Sharpclaw, forming a stalagmite to puncture his tail against the ground. As Anthony expected, Scales forced himself out of the ground to whirl and slash, but the boy had already leapt onto the tail and whirled with it.

Quickly, Anthony let go, brought up Stone Fists, and clasped Scales' tail in them. He lifted and began to whirl the stones around, Scales with them as he was unable to shake free. The action was slowly wearing Anthony out, so he ended it by slamming Scales into the ground. The beast was quick to recover, a few of his scales leaking blood. Anthony smirked, happy to know he was dealing damage, but grew confused when Scales dug up some soil and poured it in his mouth, the dino showing disgust as he swallowed it.

However, a pleasant scent found its way to Anthony's nose: it was the smell of the very earth around him. For some reason, it smelled especially sweeter, and he felt the urge to drop and start munching the ground himself. "W-What the frick?!" Realizing what he was doing, he tried to restrain himself. What was wrong with him?! It's true he had always loved the smell and feel of earth, but actually eating it was far beyond—Scales was leaping to stab him, but he rolled away by the beat of a heart. "(My power doesn't just work on animals. I can make anything smell tasty! Even that tasteless soil, yuck.)" Although Anthony couldn't understand him, he had already formed this conclusion in his mind.

Knowing he'd be helpless if he kept doing this, Anthony mustered the willpower to bend the dirt off his vest, tear a couple pieces off, and stick them up his nostrils. His smell blotted, Anthony no longer felt the need to eat dirt. He returned to chucking boulders at the dino's head in the hopes of dizzying him, Scales whacking some away and trying again to sever the boy. "What would happen if he drank his own blood?" Anthony wondered, making his way to the beast with a small rock knife extracted from the ground. He erected pillars to weaken Scales' slashes and floated the knife up to scrape blood from one of the wounds. He brought the knife back, and when Scales stabbed, Anthony intercepted the sword with a longer stone. It didn't hold up for long, but it was enough to where Anthony could send the knife up to Scales' mouth and wipe the blood on his tongue.

"BAAAAH!" screamed Scales, almost trying to spit it out, but Anthony chucked a boulder at his mouth to force it closed. Snaplaks emerged from the earth and started biting their master, and when Anthony reopened his nose, the entrancing smell of earth was gone. "So, you can only use your power on one target at a time." Anthony ran around the dino as Scales grabbed one of the Snaplaks and ate its head off, throwing the corpse away as the remaining Snaplaks went to chase it. Anthony was able to snare his tail in Stone Fists, whirling the beast in the air again. Anthony crashed him headfirst, but Scales was quick to stand and lash, Anthony dodging by a hair's breadth.

"I don't think I can keep this up for much longer… It's all or nothing!" With a forceful stomp, his Stone Fury activated, turning his peach skin to gray. The grayness was spread to the soil around him as he built another statue around himself. Scales sliced, but his Haki blade could only cut partway, and Anthony dealt a punch to the jaw. Scales sent Haki to his claws and furiously swiped the statue's chest, slowly cutting through as Anthony pummeled him with fists. Scales thrusted his claws through the weakened chest and forced Anthony out the back. The Sharpclaw ran around and dove his teeth, snatching Anthony in his mouth.

He tried to snap his teeth shut, but Anthony's stone body was able to force it open. Scales applied Haki to the teeth, puncturing the hands and feet, but Anthony slipped out before the damage could worsen. Regardless, Scales licked the blood off his teeth, prompting Snaplaks to come and chew on Anthony, but failed to bite through his stone skin. Anthony fled from the general and chucked bladed slabs, Scales swiftly cutting them away, and after catching up, he stabbed down powerfully, Anthony throwing up twin stone arms to keep the sword at bay. Scales' strength was impressive as always, so Anthony moved the arms aside and dodged, letting the sword hit the ground, then collapsing the arms over it and forcing it out of Scales' claws.

Anthony buried the sword underground, mounting himself on stone feet and forming two more giant fists. Scales ran to claw him, Anthony grabbing both in his fists and stomping the dino's feet. Scales gnashed his teeth, Anthony inching barely out of reach, and he willed the fists to spin and twist Scales' arms. Anthony thrusted up and willed a stone pillar to lift them 50 feet in the air. Scales mustered his strength and broke off the fists, bringing his metal claw down at Anthony, who broke off the stone feet to drop and dodge, but the claw still managed to scrape his back, his enhanced skin useless to Scales' Haki. Lain weakened on the ground, Scales readied to impale him for good.

"Hah?!" The risen pillar was crumbling, for Anthony had purposely brought it up with a weak structure. They both took the fall once it shattered, Scales' heavier weight bringing him down faster. Stones bashed his head during descent, ending with a forceful thud. Scales recovered and searched the rubble until Anthony climbed out of the ground. Scales could see his consciousness fading from the injuries, his Stone Fury flickering. Scales charged at Anthony to finish the job—with a backward thrust of the arm, Anthony shot a bladed stone from behind Scales, into his tail.

"AAAAAAHHH…?!" When Scales viewed what stabbed him, he learned it was his own sword, slathered with gray soil enhanced by Anthony's chi. The Sharpclaw spun, trying to reclaim his sword, but the tail evaded his reach as he made himself dizzy. Anthony quickly tripped the dino by moving the soil, then lifted a large boulder to smash his head. The pain in his tail, mixed with his previous injuries ultimately rendered the Dinosaur King unconscious. (End song.)

Aisa and Apis were able to find another way up to the field, the former shooting the Snaplaks that were still around. Fortunately, Scales' defeat disabled his Prey-Prey power, so Aisa wasn't compelled to eat Anthony. "Sigh… looks like it was another close call." Apis said, looking upon Anthony's bleeding form with pity.

"Scales isn't even an earthbender, but he still gave Anthony trouble." Aisa observed. "At least that's another one down. Let's call up the GKND to haul this lizard back to his cage."

…

After returning to the Rocketship, Tristan quickly put Anthony in bandages and put him to rest beside Mocha. They had also brought the Styracosaurus kids onboard to give them a quick antidote for Mina's acid. "Sigh… c'mon, Anthony, I thought you were stronger than that." Aranea said.

"He is very strong, but very flawed." Fybi smiled. "'Tis why my loyalty to him is eternal. Dost thou not agree?"

"Yep… eternal." Nea mumbled.

All their wristwatches started buzzing, the operatives quick to answer. "Guys, this is Vweeb. The infiltration mission was a bust, the Squid Sisters are trapped in Ineptune's undersea base. Anyone who's listening, follow these coordinates. I was able to locate a poisonbender who can help us take down Ineptune, but send backup, just in case."

Vweeb named a latitude/longitude somewhere in the middle of the sea. "I shalt investigate this happening." Fybi offered. "I will send call if the mission appears too dangerous."

"Come back safely, Fybi." Nea ordered. Her cousin nodded and flew off the ship, soon to be gone beyond the horizon.

"Vweeb found a poisonbender?" Apis asked, slightly curious. "I wonder who that could be…"

"Yo, check out my new mark!" Aisa called. The group turned—

"AAAH!" They yelped at the blood-red fangs that had been painted around Aisa's mouth.

"Hee hee hee! I'm the first Shandian to ever kill a T-rex!" Aisa grinned, emphasizing the bloody design.

"Then paint a T-rex on your hand or something!" Aeincha yelled. "We don't wanna look at that all the time!"

"Can we at least try it on Apis first?"

"NO WAY!"

Toxic sea

Cheadle remained in her "unconscious" state as she felt herself be carried outside the submarine and onto a ship. She felt a pair of firm footsteps approach her, feeling them rock the ship. Her Observation felt a huge, round mass just inches before her. "You can stop pretending to be asleep now." A lordly voice spoke.

Her eyes opened—she flinched at the sight of her reflection in a gold-plated belly. Her eyes angled up, barely seeing the head of the Animal King. Behind him were Kami, Kimaya, and Django. "I apologize for my Krewmen's primitive behavior. You probably don't enjoy being nude, do you? Let me find you some clothes and treat you to something to nibble on."