//------------------------------// // Looking Radiant. // Story: The Slayer 6 // by MrAquino //------------------------------// The new Ramsgate began to thrive. Though the scars were still fresh, everyone continued their best to slay behemoths and keep everyone inside safe. A new training area was made, as well as Lady Luck's trials island, the latter having her specialists capture behemoths to bring them into their cage. With Granny Strega, a few of the slayers, old and new, began to take lessons from her, making tonics themselves. As for the non humans, Gallus and Smolder got their new armor and weapons. Gallus's Hellion armor had a very sleek design, given him an almost royal look, especially with the helmet looking almost like a crown. Smolder's Pangar armor had a similar thick coat look as her Boreus armor, but the Pangar scales made everything look both smoother and sharper, and the helmet had a large, angry looking brow over the eyes. The entire group stood around the portal driver, with Arkan looking at it. "So… there's no way you can make a portal and let us go home?" Ocellus asked "I'm sorry, children," Arkan replied "but we need to keep it charged up just in case there's another full on scale attack like before. We all got lucky, and I'm not sure if we will again."  Smolder looked at the portal driver, snarling a bit before giving it a kick. As she did it, the portal driver glew, preparing itself again. "Smolder! What did you do!?" Gallus asked. "I just kicked it!" The dragon replied.  "You can't just kick something that makes portals!" Silversteam added. "How was I supposed to know something like this would happen!?"  The portal driver let out a huge shockwave, and a dozen, human sized portals appeared. Walking out of the portals were other people, all wearing what appeared to be robes. Some had the hoodies covering their eyes, others wearing some weird crown on their head, but one stood out as he appeared to be a cosmic being, with galaxies in his face and arms. All the other slayers stopped to look at the weird people, who looked around themselves curiously. "... Who are they?" Yona asked. "I think… those are the Void runners." Arkan replied, carefully approaching them. "Um, hello there. Are you perhaps the Void runners?" They stood and stared at him. "Oh, uh, my name is Arkan Drew. I've been studying one of your works. We used it to get everyone here into a new Ramsgate." More silence. "... can you speak English?"  "... Yes…" The galaxy looking one spoke, with a voice that sounded very calm, yet booming with a slight echo behind them. "Now we can." He walked to the portal driver, the others following him. The galaxy man looked at the machine. "This machine is high in Umbral energy, and not enough Radiant energy." He turned to the group of creatures, all looking a bit suspicious. "And the Changeling and Hippogriff need to hunt a Radiant behemoth." "Wait… how do you know what we are?" Ocellus asked. "And what we need?" Silversteam added. "The void lets us see in all dimensions. We know you want to go home, but you must defeat-" "Ok, that's just creepy." Smolder spoke up. "Oh please, you must tell us everything you know!" Arkan begged. "... Issac, Albert, go aid the others in their first Radiant hunt with a Valomyr. " Two of the hooded figures bowed, one pulling out a sword and the other an axe, both looking very impractical and almost clock-like. "The rest… we shall inform them what we know in an understandable fashion." "... What's a Valomyr?" Silversteam asked. Ocellus and Silversteam had on their neutral gear respectively, as the two void runners sat together and tinkered with their weapons. It was pretty silent between the two parties. Ocellus cleared her throat, grabbing the attention of the two humans. "So… this Valomyr…" Ocellus began. "Sorry," the axe void runner apologized. "Being trapped in the void makes you forget that not a lot of people know everything you know." "A Valomyr is one of the two Radiant behemoths." The sword member added. "Probably the largest of all the behemoths, meaning while it won't move fast, it has a lot of defenses." "Like what?" Silversteam asked. "It can summon a shield around it, summon small turrets that shoot beams of radiant energy, and teleport." "... Hope we can do this." Ocellus said nervously. A good number of slayers joined as the Void Runners were preparing for their presentation. Arkan looked almost as giddy as a child as they pulled up what appeared to be a map of the entire galaxy, adding a few stars and planets nonchalantly. The galaxy man was nowhere to be seen, but taking the stage was two other void runners, both wearing the weird head bands and exposing their faces, with one having a beard, and the other pretty young looking. "Thank you all for taking the time to join our conference." The young looking void runner spoke with a fitting voice. "We hope you at least learn a thing or two about what we know." The other spoke with a deeper voice. "And now, our presentation: a brief overview about our universe so far." As he said that, a very hip hop sounding beat came from almost nowhere. "Please tell me they're not-" Smolder spoke, but was interrupted when they began to rap. All life started with the Big Bang An explosion so great from which we all sprang The universe dispersed mass Traversing space as time passed Space expanding mad fast Stars made of light and gas The cosmos with billions of stars, gleaming These are the events that brought us all into being Runners! Runners! Now you know our name And you know we trained To wax poetic refrain With our superior brains Evolution's changed Our instincts remain To wax poetic refrain With our superior brains For years we ask how But we should ask why? Below a canopy of nebulas in the sky Orbiting matter inspiring thoughts And in this perfect vacuum our pale blue dot! Runners! Runners! Runners! Runners! Void runners explain The knowledge we gained To wax poetic refrain With our superior brains Evolution's changed Our instincts remain To wax poetic refrain With our superior brains Protons Neutrons Folding together like a futon Colliding in poem like a perfect storm Creating galaxies and planets Like the one that we're on! We're talking 'bout Earth, ya'll Alright, now it's time to break it down With every kind of star that's ever been classified! We talking giants Subgiants Red giants Blue giants Luminous giants Very luminous supergiants And less luminous supergiants Pulsar, neutron star When they rotate together that's a binary star Class W, Class O, Class L, Class F Do we have any other stars? Oh, most def' Runners! Runners! Red dwarf White dwarf Brown dwarfs are fun If you want to see a Yellow dwarf, look to our sun But don't look at the sun! Oh, no. Don't do that That's everything we learned about the known universe THE END! An awkward silence fell upon them all. "... You know, I apologize for calling Ocellus a total dork." Gallus whispered to his group. "That… was hard to listen to." Smolder grumbled. "It was catchy though." Sandbar replied. "Bet Ocellus and Silversteam are having fun." Yona muttered. Though it was night time, the group found the Valomyr; a colossal, purple rhino beetle with what appeared to be sapphire gems on it's limbs, tail, and behind it's horns. It walked around, unaware of the group. "You didn't tell us it was a beetle." Silversteam whispered. "Why does it matter?" The axe Void runner asked. Ocellus gave him a glare. "... point taken." "Hold on," the other void runner spoke up "Can't you turn into any creature?" "... I can, but-" Ocellus replied before being interrupted. "This is only a theory, but perhaps you can communicate with the behemoth and see what it knows?" "... I mean… it might work… but what if it doesn't?" "We've got your back." Silversteam replied. Ocellus took a deep breath, calming herself down. "Ok, I'll try." [Translated from Valomyr sounds] The Valomyr stood around, wandering almost aimlessly, before a large green light errupted from behind. It turned around to see another Valomyr standing. "Becky? Is that you?" The Valomyr asked. "Um… yeah, it's me… Ron." The other Valomyr stood, kinda shaking and looking nervous. It didn't affect the other Valomyr. "Yay! You remember me, Becky! I knew my stick would work!" "Uh… yeah! I love sticks." "Did Ben die?" "... Yes. Slayed by those slayers." "Good. Ben is a hoe." "Oh… so…" "Lemme smash." "What?" "Please, lemme smash." "Um… we can smash… I just want to ask a few questions first." "Anything for you, Becky." "What's our master's plan again?" "Oh? Simple; we gather all the Aether we can, bring it back to our master, and he uses it to make Keystone behemoths that will get more aether so he can make a portal for all of us to leave this destroyed world."  "Huh. Alright… and what are the Keystone behemoths, if I can ask?" "Well, there's the Malkarion, Torgadoro, and Thrax, electric, blaze, and Umbral respectfully, but he just made a new Terrain Keystone behemoth called the Agarus. Those Farslayers don't know what hit them." "Oh. Well, thanks for that. I guess we can meet up sometime and-" "Lemme smash!" Ron began to walk towards the other Valomyr. "Uh… Ron?" The other Valomyr backed up. "Can I have some personal space?" "Becky, you promised we'd Smash, and we are going to smash. Now turn around and stick your tail up." The group watched as their disguised Ocellus was backed up into the side of a mountain, before letting out a loud scream, turning back into her normal self and running to them. Ron the Valomyr made a confused sound before seeing the other slayers charge right at him. Both void runners began to battle the Valomyr, but Ocellus hugged Silversteam tightly, shivering. "Uh, Ocellus?" Silversteam spoke. "What happened?" "... you don't want to know…" Ocellus replied.  The Valomyr let out a large gathering of small Radiant orbs that circled around it, but also two crystals, one green and the other red. The sword Void runner rolled through the orbs to the green, before taking the orbs that made a small explosion upon touching him. His partner picked up the red one, throwing his axe at the legs, which exploded with a huge burst of Radiant energy. Their target's leg charged up before stomping, causing a force that pushed both slayers away. "Ocellus!" We've gotta help them!" Silversteam remarked. "But the Valomyr…" Ocellus shivered. "It… it wanted to smash me!" "I think it wants to smash everyone now." "A different version of smashing." "Different version?" Ocellus whispered into the Hippogriff's ear. "... oh… that was gonna happen?" Ocellus nodded. "Huh… I thought they couldn't reproduce." "Little help here!" One of the Void runners yelled before getting blasted by the Valomyr's horn. "Well, let's teach this behemoth a thing or two about respect!" She pulled out her Ostian repeaters. "And this will help us when battling our first Umbral Behemoth." Silversteam charged and began to fire at the behemoth. Unfortunately, the Valomyr teleported away, landing right behind Ocellus. She screamed and tried to run away, only for a near invisible dome to trap her inside, and more of the Radiant orbs began to turn around inside said dome. Outside, small floating turrets appeared around the dome and began to fire beams of Radiant energy in different directions. Both Void Runners and Silversteam rolled under the beams, quickly destroying the turrets, and began to bash at the dome. In the meantime, Ocellus was hit from the orbs inside, even if she tried to hit the Valomyr, giving it only a few scars. The dome cracked, allowing the axe member to throw his axe, knocking the Valomyr down. Everyone got to business, with Ocellus drinking a health tonic, shaking off the damage given to her. She aimed her warpike at the Valomyr, blasting off the horn of the giant beetle, slaying it. "This better get us something good." Ocellus muttered. Ocellus walked out in her new armor set. She now looked like a knight with her new armor, the helmet covering her face. As for Silversteam, her repeaters now had the same sort of gems the Valomyr had on its body.  "Not too shabby looking, Ocellus." Silversteam complimented. "Thanks, I feel so protective now!" "Too bad we're gonna have to hunt an Umbral behemoth next." Ocellus sighed, taking her helmet off. "Yeah, you're right… I just hope it's not as terrifying as that Valomyr." In the distance, by Granny Strega, three of the new Alchemists stirred a stew in a cauldron. "You sure this is going to summon them?" One of more younger members asked. "If the void runners are back, then this should bring the Night hunters." A much older one replied. "Even though it's still daytime?" A middle aged member asked. "... Let's just see if this works." All pushed the cauldron, dumping the contents into the floor below. A few seconds passed, with a few slayers giving them a dirty look for dumping some random contents into the street. Then the floor shook, followed by various hands reaching out from the ground. Soon, people dressed up in dark  Victorian-style clothes climbed up from the ground. "AHH!!! ZOMBIES!!!" Some random slayer yelled, followed by chaos erupting. The strange people looked around with curiosity.  "Oi, this isn't Ramsgate." One of them spoke in a heavy British accent. "It's way too pretty to be that old slum." "Not just that," another spoke "but it's not Halloween time! It's still daytime, blokes!" "Watashi wa sorera no koto o ki ni shimasen, watashitachi ga haka kara de rarete futatabi arukimawaru koto ga dekite ureshī dakedesu!" Said one of the females wearing strikers that looked like cat paws. "Uh… what just happened?" Gallus asked, seeing the group in the distance. "Did they just rise from the ground?" "Cool! Zombie slayers!" Smolder spoke up. "It seems the Nightslayers have returned as we have." The void runner leader spoke in his echoing voice. "And knowing them, hunting Umbral behemoths will give humanity an edge." "... looks like we found people who will help us in our next hunt." Ocellus spoke up.