In the Shadow of the Beasts

By: Rylek196

The Ninth: Storm Echo, Basaran

It was nearing evening as Wander returned to the Shrine of Worship. However, he was not aware of the time of day, what with him still being unconscious in Dormin's light. His mind, in the meantime, was elsewhere, dreaming...

In this dream, he was still in the Shrine, gazing at Mono. Oddly, Dormin's light was no longer glowing with its usual luminescence, and was out. Then, something incredible happened that made all other thoughts vanish from his mind: Mono began to stir, sitting up on the altar, the wind pulling at the hem of her dress. She was alive! Elated beyond words and description. Wander tried to run up to her, but was stopped by something, like there were heavy iron weights chained to his feet. Then, as Mono looked him right in the eyes, an enormously powerful suction force dragged him backwards, through the hallway of idols, and to a destination unknown as everything went white...

"Mono..!" Wander whispered subconsciously in his state of restless sleep. Unbeknownst to him, there were now eight shadow beings standing in a rough circle around him, staring down upon him. They sank into the floor as the statue of the eighth Colossus emitted light, and then exploded, crumbling into bits. The noise roused Wander from his sleep, and he wearily pushed himself to his feet, stumbling slightly as he took his first few steps.

He walked up the short flight of stairs to where Mono lay, sheathing his sword. Looking down at the body of his dead beloved, he reached out, gently stroking her cheek with the back of his hand. Halfway there, Mono, he thought. Just hold on a little longer. You'll be with me again soon. It seemed even the doves were not keen to interrupt this moment between Wander and Mono, though Dormin certainly was. His voice boomed from the circular hole in the roof.

'Thy next foe is... The land where trees nary grow... It sleeps in a dry lakebed... A rude awakening."

Having fulfilled its purpose of giving Wander his cryptic directions, the voice then faded. Like he did every time, Wander moved out onto the balcony, holding his blade aloft. Facing straight south and holding up the sword caused the light beam to appear in its scattered state, and he sighed. Why did I think that would work..? he thought. He turned about a quarter rotation clockwise, and the beam coalesced into its singular, powerful form.

While facing this way, Wander noticed something he couldn't believe he hadn't before: on each edge of the balcony, there were small pools of water. While the water was green and likely filled with contaminates, rendering it unsafe to drink, it still reflected his image back at him, and what he saw was not pleasant.

His clothes were becoming stained black in places by all the Colossi blood he was constantly getting covered in, and he swore his hair was getting darker, to boot. Wander just frowned at this, but felt a sudden nuzzling on his head. Agro had walked up behind him, and he hadn't even heard her, he was so lost in thought. Wander gave her a pat on the head over his shoulder, then stood up. "Come on, girl," he said, taking her reins and leading her back into the Shrine, where he mounted her. "Let's go find that next Colossus."

He rode her down the left set of stairs and made a sharp right turn. He held up the sword as he rode northwest, the beam pointing to a massive cloud of dark smoke off in the distance. He furrowed his brows at the sight, but pressed onwards regardless. To the left of the land bridge he usually took was yet another one, leading directly northwest, so he took it.

This bridge led him to rather more hilly terrain, rather than the relatively flat land of the Forbidden Land's southern plains, making maneuvering a bit harder, but he manage. At one point, about halfway to the smoke cloud, he saw a small healing shrine, but having no use for it, he passed it on by. He turned left, following the edge of a ridge to where it sloped down to lower ground. Once he was there, the smoke cloud was less than a few hundred metres away.

Crossing a small land bridge over a gorge, he passed into the cloud, and was stunned to find it was not made out of smoke, but steam. The source of said steam, he could now see, were four hot-water geysers that went off like clockwork, blasting water dozens of feet in the air.

While the light beam was weak thanks to the steam cloud, it just barely had enough power to point him to the lair of the Colossus- a massive cave to the north. He stopped at the mouth of the cave, seeing a huge shape curled up inside it. The ground then shook as the creature stood/ The Colossus was awake.

As the creature rose up to its full height, Wander could see this was yet another animalistic Colossus, this one resembling a huge, tortoise-like abomination, with four long, pillar-like legs and a massive spiny shell on its back. The Colossus then raised its head, four spikes on its chin glowing with energy. Wander yelled and immediately reared Agro around, riding to the right, where a small bunch of dead trees were. Seconds later, the beast shot four electric bolts at the spot he had just been, each shattering branches and sending wood splinters flying everywhere. Wander doubled back around on Agro, keeping near the trees, as there wasn't any other viable cover on the flat, rocky field.

Then, with surprising speed, the monster walked out of the cave it called home and onto the geyser field. Anticipating another volley of energy bolts, Wander rode Agro away from where he was, the bolts again just missing him. The Colossus simply knocked over the trees as its legs hit them, uprooting some and snapping others like matchsticks.

Wander steered Agro out of the way of another energy bolt cascade. He was now firmly in the geyser field, completely exposed with nothing to hide behind to provide protection from the energy shots. There's only one area it can't shoot from, Wander thought. And that's underneath it.

Steeling himself for what would likely be an utterly suicidal tactic, he rode in zigzagging patterns to avoid the shots the monster fired his way. By some miracle, he wasn't hit, and made it right between the monster's forelegs and under its belly. He slowed Agro to a walk, yanking back on the reins hard to do so. Looking up, he could see that the beasts underbelly was furry. But that doesn't do me any good, he thought, moving Agro carefully around as the beast stomped about above them. Not unless I can somehow flip it onto... its... side... Wander looked back at the geyser field just as a heated blast of water was sent rocketing into the air.

Something immediately clicked in Wander's mind right in that moment, and he knew what to do. He kicked Agro's sides with his legs, getting her to move faster again. He rode out from under the Colossus's rear right leg to avoid getting blasted right away, then made a mad dash for the nearest geyser. The Colossus followed him, blasting energy bolts his way, volley after volley, so much so that even a master horseman like Wander found it near impossible to dodge them all, but somehow he managed.

Not paying attention to where it was going, the Colossus accidentally walked right onto the geyser just as it fired... and this was exactly what Wander planned.

However, much to his anger, the beast wasn't flipped over right away, rather, it just hung there, its left two legs suspended in the air, while its right two legs remained planted on the ground, but only just. "Dammit!" Wander yelled, riding Agro back to the Colossus. There, he saw yellow glowing spots on the beast's 'ankles' so to speak, and he had fought more than enough of the Colossi by this point to know what to do. He dismounted, took out his bow and opened his quiver, and fired two quick shots, one for each glowing spot.

THAT certainly did the trick, and with a roar, the Colossus's weight lost out to the geyser's force. With a mighty BOOM, the Colossus was flipped completely over, onto its side. Its furry underbelly was now free for Wander to climb.

To get over to the beast faster, Wander once more mounted Agro and rode her over, using her as a sort of platform to jump off of to gain more height more quickly. "Get out of here, Agro! Run, now!" he yelled, motioning with his free arm in an 'away' gesture.

Agro did what she was told, and ran away from the Colossus, probably going back to the Shrine of Worship. Breathing a sigh of relief (that was one less thing to worry about, after all), he began to propel himself upwards, hand over hand, until he reached a series of stony ridges right on the side of the beast's shell. The Colossus managed to right itself seconds later, turning the vertical surface he was clinging to into a horizontal one. Wander pulled himself onto the edge of the shell, and relative saftey.

He ran around this ridge until he was at the back of the beast's shell. Wander was astounded at the size of it. It was almost like a miniature canyon, with the spiky protrusions playing the part of the walls. He ran through the center of the 'canyon', having a pretty damn good idea where the Sigil was, and wanting more than a little payback for how irritating this particular Colossus had been.

Sure enough, there was a small patch of fur atop the monster's head. When he pulled out his sword, the Sigil appeared. Wander drew his arm back to ram the blade into the monster's head, but this Colossus was seemingly more intelligent than most, and flicked its head back in a quick motion, flinging him around. Wander yelled as he was nearly bucked off. He just held on, and stabbed down the first chance he got. The Colossus roared in pain, flinging its head back even as Wander was showered with black, inky blood. Now stuck to the monster, Wander rammed his sword into the Sigil upon its head again, while the Colossus could do nothing but fling its head back in a display of futility to shake off Wander.

The blood-crazed young man then stabbed again, feeling another spray of blood soak him. The monster tried one more time to buck its head back, but it was hopeless. With the final stab, it gave its last roar, rearing up, then collapsed, its two front legs splaying out to either side of its body. Wander, less exhausted than he usually was, but knowing he would be stiff when he woke up the next morning, let the corpse turn black under him. The tentacles shot up out of where the Sigil had been, and so entered him almost instantly, piercing him directly in the chest.

Wander fell to his knees, his last conscious thought being, More than halfway.

In the spiralling tunnel, he once again heard the voice... "No... Wand..."

A/N: And that's where this chapter, and indeed this story, is gonna stop. Yes, I have a feeling I'm gonna piss off a lot of people with this A/N, but sadly, I have no choice. With the success of Detective Pikachu, and the coming Sonic movie (even though it'll suck, let's not beat around the bush here- the fact that they've redesigned Sonic be damned) it's abundantly clear to me that a Hollywood bastardization of SotC is not only inevitable, but is going to happen, and the last thing I want is for some two-bit hack Hollywood screenwriter (which is all of them) plagiarizing this story. Luckily, I didn't get to any of the really important stuff, like the reason why the Forbidden Land is abandoned and the circumstances behind why Mono was killed to begin with. I truly am sorry for this, but from now on, this story will be a private project for me and a few close friends.