//------------------------------//
// Adventure: The MFing T-Rex 
// Story: My Own Wings 
// by Tatsurou 
//------------------------------//

Returning to the chamber where the King waited, Fox and Sunset carefully placed the Redeye Teeth, Sunset placing gold in the gold relief, Fox placing silver in the silver relief.  The two carvings lifted, and a ramp lowered between them leading to a raised gate.  "So the Red Eye King is in there?" Fox asked carefully.

"He is indeed," the King replied firmly.  "Be wary.  He is the most powerful Dinosaur to ever be born on this planet, and has lived for uncounted centuries.  He will not be easy to defeat, and he endlessly hungers.  Failure will mean death and consumption."

Fox waited for Sunset's cheeky counter...but it never came.  "Then we won't fail," he responded instead, somewhat worried about Sunset's lack of adventuresome enthusiasm.  While he was glad that she was aware of the danger, he'd expected more excitement out of her.  Then again, she had studied these dinosaurs and knew their abilities...and much of her bravado was from the strength of her magic, which this beast would be completely immune to...

"Good luck!" the King called as the trio descended into darkness.





The trio raced through the darkness until they eventually stepped out into a corner where two long, tall, well lit hallways met and ended.  A stone wall closed and sealed behind them once they were inside.  In the distance around a far corner - from the sound, at a similar corner at the opposite end of the square of corridors - another stone wall could be heard to scrape open.  A heavy 'THOOM!' echoed and shook the ground, causing concentric ripples in a nearby puddle of water.  The sound echoed a couple of more times...followed by a loud roar that echoed with predatory hunger.  The loud sounds - now recognizable as the footsteps of something massive - began again, fast as though something were racing down a far corridor.

Sunset quickly shot a fireball at a switch above them, opening a gate in the corner revealing a low-roofed segment with a fuel barrel generator inside.  "In here!" she hissed quickly as she and Fox ducked inside.  She then saw Tricky still in the hallway.  "Tricky, what are you doing?!" she gasped out in fear.

"I am Prince Tricky of the Earthwalkers," he stated firmly as he took a few steps down it.  "I am the son of the Gatekeeper of Walled City.  I will not run and hide from the bogey-beast of our fables-"

The King Red Eye rounded the corner, standing tall and massive to the point he filled the corridor.  He looked like the normal Red Eyes, but so much bigger.  His scales were far darker, and there were short spines in ridges along his back from his head down to his tail.  Everything about him screamed power...including the Spellstone embedded in his forehead that glowed to show it was actively draining the beast's magic and it was still this strong.  Its eyes glowed as it caught sight of Tricky, and it let out a hunting roar as it charged.

Much to Fox and Sunset's shock, Tricky stepped forward.  "I..." he managed to gasp out, his entire body shaking as he struggled against his fear.  "...will not..."  He stepped onto a glowing platform that had a sun-relief on it, which sank as he put his full weight on it.  Halfway down the corridor, light glowed along the walls.  "Run!" Tricky screamed as he exhaled a blast of flame, closing his eyes as he tried to make his flame big enough to push the beast back.

The light down the corridor erupted, generating a wall of lightning just as the King Red Eye charged through it.  With the Spellstone actively draining its power, the energy was too much and it was knocked prone for a short time.

Tricky blinked as his fire faded.  "...did...did I do that?" he gasped in surprise, having not seen the wall of lightning.

Fox grabbed Tricky and raced away as Sunset used her magic to propel the fuel barrel into the King Red Eye, the explosion of kinetic force making it roar in pain as it staggered to its feet, charging down the corridors after them.  The trio ducked into another alcove the moment they were out of its sight, letting it charge past them.

"No, seriously, did I do that?" Tricky whispered insistently.

"Yes," Fox responded, amusement dripping from his words.  "You stepped on the floor switch to activate the stun field defense system that knocked the beast prone."

"O-oh," Tricky allowed, his head drooping a little.

"It was still very brave of you," Sunset hastened to assure him.  "And you looked so cool!"  This made Tricky perk up happily.

"Sunset," Fox spoke up, handing Sunset Krystal's staff.  "You used this before to turn yourself completely invisible.  Do so again, and scout around for more fuel barrels and the control switches for those security fields.  We need to plan how we're going to take this beast down.  Something tells me it won't fall for the same trick in the same place twice."

Nodding, Sunset combined her magic with the staff and vanished before racing up the side of the wall, moving around to try and track down where the fields were, the controls, and the fuel barrels.  Before she even made it halfway down the first corridor, however, the King Red Eye spun and lunged for her jaw first.  "Yipe!" she yelped as she leapt out of the way, only to land on the beast's back.  It reared angrily and began to charge down the circular path, trying to shake her off.  She held on tight as it ran the loop, focusing on sensing the controls, the fuel barrels, and the fields as it ran.  When it raced past Fox and Tricky, she leapt off and landed with them...though it continued to run for a while.  "One in the middle of each corridor," she whispered as she handed the Staff back, "the controls at variable distance from the fields, and can only be activated when there's enough of a magic charge in them, and it's far too strong for you to try to power it yourself or get supercharged by it outside a Temple, Dad."

Fox frowned at that.  "Well there goes one shortcut..."

"The fuel barrels are at the corners," Sunset finished.  "I managed to open all the gates on that loop, though.  But it can either sense magic or find me through some other way when I'm invisible-"

"Like its giant nose?" Tricky asked curiously.  "It's about 100 times stronger than the Sharpclaws' sense of smell, and the legends say it could smell the fear of those who tried to fight it."

"...that'd do it," Sunset admitted.  She then turned back to Fox.  "And we need to make sure it's actually dead before we remove the Spellstone.  If it were able to unleash its full magic power against us..."

Fox nodded firmly.  "Alright, let's get to work..."





While very intense and terrifying, the battle with the Red Eye King did not last very long.  Each time it spotted them at the opposite end of the corridor, it would roar and charge.  If they stepped onto the trigger platform for the security field just as the roar ended, the beast would enter the range of the field just as it went off, putting it in the perfect spot to hit with a fuel barrel before it could recover.  The fourth field's controls were much closer to the field, and Tricky insisted on triggering it himself while Sunset wielded the fuel barrel.  The Red Eye King nearly landed on him as it fell, but he backed up fast enough to avoid that as the field faded.  With the fourth barrel hit, the King laid still, eyes closed.

"Is...is it dead?" Tricky asked worriedly.

"It...looks it," Sunset murmured as she used Krystal's staff to lever the Spellstone from its forehead, the glow fading as it fell to the ground.

"Remember not to hold it!" Tricky called out as Sunset turned towards it.

"I know-"

"Watch out!' Fox called out as the Red Eye King suddenly lunged forward, trying to close its jaws around Sunset...only to scream as it backed up, half its tongue burned off as Tricky blasted his hottest flame right over Sunset and into the beast's jaws.

Sunset staggered back in shock as she realized just how close she came to a painful death due to her carelessness.  "We need to get-"

Fox raced up the wall, Krystal's staff in his hands as lightning raced along it.  "You do not do that to my little girl, you son of a bitch!" he snarled as he kicked off the wall and drove the staff into the indent on the beast's skull where the Stone had rested, driving it straight through to the brain before discharging the spell.

The Red Eye King screamed in agony as it thrashed...and then it fell, the impact shaking the pyramid...and lay still, its magic and life force gone.

"...I can not wait to tell Dad about this!" Tricky squealed out excitedly.  "But...what's a 'bitch'?  I don't think our language has that word."

Sunset couldn't help but giggle as Fox facepalmed.