The Secret of the Shen-Gong-Wu

Chapter 4, Clay in Mount Pillar

Previously on The Secret of the Shen-Gong-Wu, Kimiko's arrival in the Underworld of Perim was interrupted by a lava monster named Magmon. After being rescued by a creature named H'earring, Kimiko sought an audience with the Underworld's leader, Chaor. His muge, Kopond, allowed her to speak with Chaor because he truly believed that Kimiko was a warrior of an ancient prophecy, but Chaor was not convinced. Wanting to prove herself, Kimiko volunteered to battle in the Underworld Colloseum. After her victory, she wanted to learn more about the prophecy she and her friends were supposed to fulfill. She saw a painting of her and her friends and knew that all of it was real. Now Clay is about to enter Perim through Mount Pillar. The question is What is he in for? Read on and find out.

"WHOOOOOOAAAAAA!" Clay was screaming as he tumbled head over heels through the swirling vortex. He was so dizzy, he couldn't think straight and didn't see the rest of his friends and enemies fly through the edges of the portal. Suddenly, he shot out of the other end and landed face first in something nasty. All he heard when he landed was a loud crunching sound and the squish of slime. He pushed himself up and saw that he had landed in a puddle of dark green slime. He also noticed that he was in some kind of cave.

"Oh man. That just ain't right." he said wiping the goo off himself. As he brushed himself off, he realized that his Long Horn Taurus, Big Bang Meteorang, and Shen-Gong-Wu were gone. "What in tarnation? How? Where? Huh?" He was freaking out. "Well this just gets weirder and weirder." he said as he calmed down a little.

Then, he noticed some small pieces that looked like egg shells in the slime. He also noticed round stones covered in the slime. "Wait a minute. This is some kind of nest and these are eggs. Uh-Oh. I'd better get out a here before the momma comes back." Suddenly, an insect-like creature walked by the cavern entrance and saw Clay. It looked like some kind of ant with gray metal armor and it was carrying a sword with a yellow oval-like object between a curved red handle and a barbed blade.

"Intruder! Hive Alert. There is an intruder in the nest. Capture and assimilate him." said the creature, raising its blade. His antennae were shaking, but Clay assumed he was talking to himself. Regardless, Clay thought it might be a good time to run, so he ran out of there, dodging lasers that came from the insect's sword. But even after he got away from that creature, he heard more of them coming down a corridor to his left. "Over there. He said he went this way."

"What in tarnation?" said Clay running again. "How did he tell them what happened? Wait a minute." Clay remembered how the creature was shaking his antennae while screaming. "He must've sent some kind of bug message. How the heck did that happen?" He didn't have time to dwell on this though, because there were more of those ant-like creatures coming for him. Soon, he ran into more of those things. There were some of those creatures in front of him and behind him.

Surrounded, Clay gathered his energy and screamed "Wudai Crater Earth!" and punched the ground so hard, it created a tidal wave of rock and stone that almost buried the creatures in front of him. But the ones behind him shot something into his back. They looked like stingers. As Clay pulled them out, he suddenly felt himself getting sleepier until he finally lost consciousness.

Clay could faintly make out raspy, higher pitched voices as he slowly came to. They were talking about him, saying things like "He's no creature I've ever seen."

"Then how did he do a Rock Wave attack?"

"Have you seen his clothing? He's clearly from another world."

As he fully woke up, he realized he had been tied up with vines and was in some throne room with a curtain blocking their view of the throne. There was a lizard-like creature right next to him. He looked like a gecko with round knee guards, a pointed helmet, and a flag-like loincloth.

"What're they doing?" said Clay to the lizard.

"Probably deciding on our punishment. I'm Kolmo." said the lizard.

"Name's Clay. What're you in for?"

"Attempting to kidnap their queen. What about you?"

"I reckon I squished some of their eggs. What are they anyhow?"

"What do you think they are?" said Kolmo sarcastically.

"Hey. I'm not exactly from around here. What are they?"

"Forgive me outsider. They are Danians. The most disgusting tribe in all of Perim."

"Perim? I'm gonna assume that's the world I'm on. What exactly are you?"

"I'm a Mipedian. My kind dwells in the deserts of the Overworld while these insects choose to hide like rats in a single mountain in the Underworld. My kind has the ability to become invisible."

"Silence!" said an old woman's voice. Clay and Kolmo turned to see a Danian with a huge abdomen coming out to see them. Since she looked like a queen ant from Earth, Clay assumed she was the Danian queen.

"I'm guessing you're in charge 'round here." said Clay, only to be punched by one of her guards.

"Queen Illexia said silence!" he said. "Go on your highness."

"You, outsider! What is your name? I have never seen a creature such as you before."

"My name's Clay Baily. I'm from Earth. I'm looking for some friends of mine…" he couldn't finish before the guard hit him again.

"The queen only asked your name!" said the guard.

"Nonetheless. Do you know why you're here?"

"Not really." said Clay.

"You're here because you are both enemies of the Danian tribe. And you are going to be made an example of. Necrabe, the parasites." said the queen. Another Danian came out of another room. He was wearing a dark red robe over his pale brown skin. He was wearing a low hanging golden medallion with a string of skulls hanging from it. In each hand, he held a red beetle the size of his palm. Kolmo started struggling and screaming, as if he knew what they were doing.

"No! NO! YOU CAN'T DO THAT TO ME!" The guards held him in place as Necrabe shoved the beetle right into his chest. Kolmo's screaming just got louder. He was in unimaginable pain. But when the screaming got quieter, Kolmo started changing. His eyes turned completely yellow. An extra pair of arms shot out of his shoulders, the forearms blue and the rest of his skin yellowish brown with blue-green stripes. As he freed himself from the vines, he looked at all four of his hands and broke down crying. Clay couldn't believe it. They turned him into one of them.

"You're next outsider." said Necrabe. He then approached Clay with the parasite.

"No. No! NO! SOMEONE HELP ME! AUGH!" Clay just screamed as Necrabe approached, but just when he was about to put that thing in Clay, a rush of pebbles shot the bug right out of Necrabe's hand and destroyed it. Everyone turned around to see where the pebbles had come from and saw another Danian. He had pale green skin with shaggy black hair underneath the hood of his dirty gray robe. He was also wearing a heptagonal wooden amulet with a strange symbol carved into it.

"Lore! You'd better be able to explain yourself!" said the queen.

"I can. If I had not intervened, you would have infected the Danian champion of the Earth." said Lore.

"Are you speaking of that infernal prophecy again Lore? That's just a scary story we tell to the hatchlings at night. It's not real."

"Then why does he so perfectly resemble the depictions carved in the Tablet Sanctuary?" Everyone looked at each other and started mumbling to their friends or coworkers. The queen just looked at her subjects for a minute.

"If he can defeat Odu-Bathax in combat, I will spare him, if not, he will be infected and you will be punished." she said. "Lock the outsider in the dungeon until Odu-Bathax is ready for combat."

"Man, this is even worse than a rained out square dance." said Clay. He was sitting in a dungeon waiting for the Danians to force him to fight for his freedom. "How'd I get into this mess? I don't even know how I got here. I don't even know where here is."

"Where do you think you are? This is Mount Pillar." said a voice from outside. Clay walked from the wall to the cell door and saw another Danian standing in front of it. He pretty much looked like most of the other Danians, except he looked like he had been putting on weight. He obviously wasn't the hardest working bee in the hive.

"What in tarnation is Mount Pillar?" said Clay. The Danian just looked at him like whatever he was talking about was common knowledge.

"Let me guess. You're not from around here are you?"

"Well, not really. I'm actually from Texas."

"What part of Perim's in that in?"

"No. Texas is one of the United States. I'm from Earth."

"So you're from another world?"

"I guess so. Name's Clay." He extended his hand between the bars.

"I'm Wamma." said the Danian as he shook Clay's hand.

"Nice to meet ya. What was that Lore feller talking about?" said Clay as he pulled his hand back in.

"You mean the prophecy about the Danian champion of the Earth? It says that four warriors from another world will one day arrive in Perim and not only bring unity to the four tribes, but also save our world from a supernatural dark force."

"Normally I'd be saying that story was less believable than a flying pig on the local news, but with the stuff I've run into the past three years, I can't help but believe it. By the way, who's this Odu-Bathax the queen mentioned? She said I was supposed to fight 'im."

"If you're going up against Odu-Bathax, you need to bring you're A-game. He's one of the queen's top fighters and the most regarded Battlemaster in Mount Pillar. In case you're wondering about that, a Battlemaster is a Danian general. Don't let your guard down for a second. He's no pushover."

"The queen said that if I can't beat him in a fight, she'll infect me. Is that what they did to that Kolmo feller?"

"Yeah. They assimilated him. They used a parasite with toxic hormones to change him into one of them. Their idea of unity is for there to be only one tribe, by making them all Danians."

Clay squeezed the bars and gritted his teeth in anger. What the Danians were doing was just like people who forced their beliefs on others and that made him sick. "Those low down no good two bit termites. As soon as I get outta here, I'm squashing that queen like the bug she is."

"You can't do that. The queen's daughter, Princess Aszil, is ten times more powerful. She'd succeed Queen Illexia and the entire Danian army would hunt you down like a fugitive. You'd be the one who killed the Danian queen. There wouldn't be anyplace for you to go."

Clay just stomped over to the back wall of his cell and slammed his fists on it, seething in anger. He could never forgive the Danian queen for what she and her people were doing with those parasites, but he had no choice but to put up with them. "I swear. One day, I'll find a cure for those and give it to any creature that those pests ever infected."

Wamma heard a door open in the nearby corridor. "That'll have to wait until another day. Odu-Bathax is ready. You've got a battle to survive."

Clay was standing in the middle of a huge arena with thousands of Danians either cheering him on to win or booing him, hoping he'd lose. In front of him was his opponent, Odu-Bathax, a large, beetle-like Danian with two large read antennae sticking out from his back. He had glowing red eyes and blue armor. He had four arms, two of which had ax-like blades attached. The lower pair of arms had no blades. The queen walked out on a balcony overlooking the arena and spoke over a microphone.

"Danians, today, we will test to see if we have a prophesied champion among us. This creature…" She pointed at Clay "…has been protected from assimilation by our high muge, claiming that he is the Danians' champion of the earth from the prophecy of the four elemental warriors. But, he was to be infected under charges of attacking the nest. If he can defeat Odu-Bathax in combat, he will be cleared of all charges and will be trained to use our earth attacks. If not, he will be assimilated and Lore will be punished." The Danians started cheering for the fight to begin. "Odu-Bathax, are you ready?"

"Yes my queen." said Odu-Bathax.

"Human, Clay is it? Are you ready?"

"As ready as I'll ever be." said Clay.

"Ready?...Fight!" Clay and Odu started their fight immediately. Odu started out with swinging his arm blades at Clay, probably trying to take his head off. Luckily, Clay was a lot faster than he looked and easily dodged each slash.

Suddenly, Odu got frustrated and yelled "Mineral Mayhem!", causing a barrage of splinters of rock to shoot out of the ground and rain down on wherever Clay was standing and some of it hit him.

"That does it. Wudai Crater Earth!" said Clay. The ground cracked under his feet and covered him in a suit of stone armor. He was then able to fight back against Odu with more of an edge. He started shooting stones out of the gloves and bombarded Odu.

"When did he learn Pebblestorm? No matter. Trampling Tackle!" Odu started glowing with a dark red aura of light and as the light aura got bigger, he darkened and charged towards Clay. Luckily, Clay dodged out of the way and Odu charged face first into a wall.

After Odu pulled himself out of the hole he just put in the wall, Clay said "Is that all you got?"

"I'm just getting started. Rock Wave!" said Odu. He punched the ground so hard, it rose up a tidal wave of stone that came right for Clay who then punched the earth hard enough to bring up a wall of rock. As soon as the attack struck Clay's shield of Earth, Clay kicked it and launched it at Odu, pinning him against the wall, actually squishing him between two slabs of solid rock. Clay's rock shield cracked and fell down with Odu falling to his knees and collapsing on the ground, unable to continue the battle.

Clay breathed heavy, tired from that battle. All the Danians grabbed their left shoulders with their left hands and did the same thing with their right hands to their right shoulders. When their hands were clutching their shoulders, they all did a bow simultaneously. Rising from the bow, the queen said "All hail Clay, Master of the Earth!"

"All hail Clay, Master of the Earth!" chanted the crowd. Looking around, Clay was pretty pleased with himself. He had become a hero in one battle. He still wasn't happy about having to fight for these creatures, but he knew they would trust him now that he had proved himself to them. Lore came out onto the arena to congratulate him.

"Well done Clay. You have proven that you are the one we have been waiting for. The entire Danian forces are at your command." said Lore.

"Wait a minute. These bugs just tranquilized me, threatened to turn me into a termite, and then tried to kill me, and now they're gonna do whatever I say?"

"You sound unhappy. Is there a problem with that?"

"Well I didn't say that. So what now?"

"Before your quest can begin, you must learn the ancient Earth attacks and learn about our battlegear and mugic, which are magical spells contained in special gems."

"Ok. When do we start?"

Next time, Omi gets in over his head in the Riverlands and then heads for the big city, Kiru City.