//------------------------------// // Chapter 134 - Crab Rave. // Story: Terraria: Friendship Is Magic // by Pomp-Neigh //------------------------------// -TERRARIA, TERRARIUM- Celebes rises from her kneeling gesture, along with a shocked expression, as she blinks twice and comments: “Wait, you mean you foresaw this coming? B-but, why didn’t you tell me? I could’ve-” “I’m sorry, my beloved dryad,” Terra responds with a saddened tone. “There was nothing we could ever do to prevent the coming events. Especially in my current… state. For you see, a powerful force is moving the pieces of this board game.” Terra seemed to hesitate for a moment before the ancient deity seemingly lets loose a sad sigh. Taking notice of this, Celebes asks: “Are you referring to: Nyarlathotep? Or, The Moon Lord? Yharim?” “No, my dear. For even those individuals are a pawn in this game. Yharim in particular seems to be their favorite piece on the board.” The Dryad was now absolutely stunned by Terra’s words as she responds in shock: “Y-you mean even that monster is being used?!”  “They are, and by an ancient foe that I wish no one in all of existence to have to ever face: Xeroc… my brother.” The Dryad’s face morphs into absolute dread, and her eyes shoot wide open as she says pleadfully: “No… n-no… this can’t be, Xeroc shouldn’t be able to influence anyone at all.” “It is the truth, and Xeroc is indeed manipulating many of the recent events that have transpired throughout Terraria’s history. I’m truly sorry, Celebes… I’ve failed you all-” “Don’t you dare say that!” Celebes roars out in response, but with loving intentions, as she declares: “You brought us all this far! Even in your current state, you still do everything in your power to keep our world safe! You are the one who rewards adventurers and heroes with powerful items, when they defeat a Boss, or even a Mini-Boss. Heck, all loot in general comes from you,” The Dryad then runs up to the emerald tree, and hugs it. “You took me in when the others died… my parents. I love the royal family in Camelot, but it was you who comforted me through the years as I watched over Razeem’s prison on the moon.” The echoing voice of Terra lets loose a loving chuckle, before she replies: “This reminds me, you changed your name to that of your mother. But, I will always refer to you by the name Celebes gave you: Tree Hugger.” -TERRARIA, THE GLOWING MUSHROOM BIOME- Crabulon was simply having the time of the crab’s life as the entity continued to literally dance around their opponents. No matter how hard Applejack would swing her Orange Phaseblade, it wouldn’t work.  “Come on, orange pony. Swing a little harder next time and move that tooshy. While you do that, I’ll be doing the crab rave.” Crabulon comments while dancing in crab motions. Despite still using the form of Yamata, Echo Silhouette’s attacks simply couldn’t breach the cobalt armor of Crabulon.  “Maybe you should try copying someone else? It might improve your terrible performance. Yehee!” Crabulon states, as the crab performs its own version of a moonwalk. Rainbow Dash unleashed most of her ammunition into the ancient crab, but to no avail. The cyan pegasus was running dangerously low on ammunition, and even resorted to relying solely on her melee weapons: Bloody Rupture and Aquatic Discharge. Dual wielding the two dagger-like weapons, the pegasus makes swift passes in flight and slices away at Crabulon’s armored body, but of course, to no effect. “Again, nice try! Chicken horse! Ow! Sing it to me baby!” Crabulon antagonizes while moving side to side in crab fashion. Both Terralestia and Sai Sahan were growing ever frustrated as they had to not only watch Crabulon mock them, but witness their attacks fail to do any damage at all thanks to the crab’s cobalt covered body. In addition, the crab idol’s dancing was also beginning to get on their nerves as Terralestia shouts: “I can’t stand this stupid crab!” “Crabulon is certainly an annoying opponent. I think I’d rather go to The Crimson and fight its monsters, then having to fight this overgrown crab any longer.” Having overheard the duo, Crabulon turns towards their direction and says: “What’s wrong? Can’t handle the crab rave?” The ancient crab then rushes forward in an attempt to crush the two terrarians. The crab slams his claws onto the duo, but sadly misses as they both roll to the side at the very last second before they retaliate by unleashing their own attacks. Both physical and magical. But of course, to no effect. ………. Nearby, the battle with the crab cultists continues to wage as the truffles, merfolk, and Jeremy The Angler contends against the mounted opponents of the cult; in addition to the Prophet Of Crabulon.  “You shall never stop the rave of our cult!” The Prophet roars out while their large crab mount combats against Jeremy The Angler. “There are a lot of things wrong with that sentence!” Jeremy shouts in response as he dodges the large crab’s strike and fires away at The Prophet with his Harpoon, but the weapon’s projectiles are blocked by the aforementioned prophet of Crabulon, via his sword with a crab shaped hilt. ………. Shroom elongates his left arm and forcefully plucks a cultist right off of his crab mount. The truffle tosses the cultist away before flipping over the large orange and white crab by wrapping around it with his right arm like a vein. “Shroom smash stupid crabs!” The Truffle roars out as he prepares to attack more of the large crabs and their riders. However, a hand gesture from King Amidias stops Shroom’s actions, as the Sea king states: “Please, Sir Shroom, these creatures are not doing this out of their own wills. Those runes on their backs are messing with their minds. Remove them, and perhaps we can save these poor creatures of the sea.” “Shroom no attack big crabs? But big crabs are bad crabs, no?” “Their riders are bad, yes. But not the crabs themselves. The only crab on the battlefield that’s our enemy is: Crabulon.” king Amidias responds as he reduces a few more cultists to ashes via a lightning bolt from his trident. “Ok, Shroom no hurt crabs. Only surface dwellers on crabs. And Crabulon. Shroom understands.” The Truffle then lets loose a powerful rumbling from his mushroom-like form as the other truffles nearby seems to understand this form of communication. They in turn let loose a similar rumbling as they then dismount various members of the cult, while also immobilizing the large crabs via walls of fungi or long veins of roots. “I thank you and your fellow truffles for this kindness, Sir Shroom.” King Amidias said. Shroom nods in response as they continue the fight against The Brotherhood Of The Crab.” -TERRARIA, THE DUNGEON DEPTHS- To say that Greed was absolutely infuriated would be an understatement as the Ancient was currently curled up in the normal fashion of a serpent.  “If I continue to stay here, I’ll be driven mad! Blast that pony and her damned Slime Gods.” The God Of Greed said as all around him, he could see a series of multicolored lighting thanks to the dome that had practically shone upon the depths of The Dungeon. But not entirely. However, despite his current circumstances and anger, The God Of Greed didn’t feel all too helpless as he had already set a series of plans in motion; in order to assist regaining the Ancient’s freedom. In addition, he was becoming very curious of a certain presence that he could feel even deeper down The Dungeon’s depths.  “Hmmm, perhaps I should go see this for myself. Much like the caverns of Terraria-of which I personally created-nothing is gained shall one never try to venture.” The Ancient then uncurls himself and slithers his large frame down into the depths of The dungeon. ………. As Greed continued to descend, he could already hear the many whispers of an ancient sentience. Of course, Greed himself was far more ancient than whatever this hidden force was, but it did still incite curiosity out of The God Of Greed. However, The Ancient did know one thing as he states: “Well well well, Yharim. We’ve been a little bad boy, now haven’t we? As if sicking Twilight Sparkle on us wasn’t bad enough, you shoved the dead souls of the corpses you threw into The Sulphurous Sea, down here? Naughty naughty. Anubis must really hate you,” Greed then smiles devilishly as he goes on to say: “But, I’m not a bleed heart like Anu-bubugaga, this is a very good opportunity for me.” ………. The large serpentine entity was now positioned before a narrow hallway which was far too small for his serpentine body. The Ancient grunts in annoyance as he comments: “I hate using that… guttural form.” An aura of varying colors overtakes his body as Greed begins to reduce in size and takes on the form of a terrarian. One he used to trick many other individuals, and even captured other gods: Loganic. The newly transformed individual looks himself over, before saying: “Let’s just get this over with. I look forward to meeting your acquaintance, and perhaps we could strike a bargain… Polterghast.”