What is this—some melodramatic padawan phase? Next thing you know, Millisyn will wrap a strip of black cloth over one eye and loudly declare she's sealed away some ancient Sith "cursed sight," and the moment she "unseals" it she'll start babbling nonsense like a malfunctioning droid...
Looks like Millisyn really, really likes lightsabers.
Too bad No. 32 doesn't share that particular obsession—otherwise General Grievous might actually have found himself an heir.
After weaving through several more rooms, Amir suddenly shouted in delight, "There are crystals!"
Everyone followed the direction of Amir's finger. This was a larger chamber—more than ten meters tall—so open it felt empty. A few lamp stands around the edges flickered weakly. In the very center of the room was an even larger pattern, and the pleasant surprise was that in the recesses at certain nodes of the pattern, there were Massassi crystals set into place—though not many.
"Count them. See if it's enough," Amir said, walking over. He raised the lamp stand to illuminate the floor and examined it carefully.
"Only three!" Ahsoka said. "The pattern looks the same as Gudrian. There are nine nodes in total."
"Damn," Amir said with regret. "With the five crystals we got earlier, we're still short by one. The side chambers are probably like the ones we passed—empty."
Just as Amir was thinking this trip might be a waste, his gaze shifted toward the back of the room.
"Wait..." Amir slowly reached for his lightsaber and began backing away.
Ahsoka realized something at nearly the same time and tightened her grip on both of her lightsabers.
"What is it?!" Millisyn asked, holding up a Massassi crystal she'd picked up and was examining.
"Get to my side, Millisyn!" Amir backed toward her. Millisyn set the crystal down and came over.
No. 32 drew the blaster he carried.
"We're surrounded," Amir said, scanning the room.
"This isn't the dragon slugs' nest, is it?" Ahsoka swallowed as she looked at the dragon slugs pouring in from all around.
"Be confident," Amir said. "It is." He pulled out his blaster pistol and handed it to Millisyn.
"Protect yourself."
"Oh! I will!" Millisyn said happily, looking at the blaster in her hand. "Is this for me?"
"Borrowing it."
"Hmph."
The hissing around them had already blended into a single wall of sound. Amir and Ahsoka ignited their lightsabers at the same time.
The steady glow of the blades gradually calmed Amir's breathing.
"Alright. First—stay calm. Try to drive them back. This room has a lot of lamp posts," Amir said.
"How do I use this... um..." Millisyn studied the blaster pistol.
Pew-pew!!!
"Sorry!"
"Millisyn!!"
The tense atmosphere detonated the instant Millisyn fired. The bolts streaked straight into the dragon slugs clustered along the edge of the room. Two screeches followed—she actually hit something.
In the next moment, dense black shapes surged out of every corner—through the main entrance, from the ceiling, from cracked gaps in the walls.
The dragon slugs seemed to have forgotten their fear of light. They spiraled forward in a frenzy, pressing closer and closer. Lamp stands near them were crushed and shattered by their bloated bodies, and the room's brightness began to die away.
"Good thing I came prepared," Amir said, staring into the growing darkness. He pulled out a small sphere, pressed it, then threw it upward.
As the sphere rose to a certain height, it began to release a bright glow.
"Aaaah!!!!" The dragon slugs screamed in agony. Living underground in darkness for so long, their eyes had nearly degenerated—so they were extremely sensitive to light. That stark white glare was like a flashbang straight into their bug eyes.
"What do we do?" Ahsoka asked. "Grab the crystals and run, or… or just run?"
"I think I see a big one," Amir said, looking behind a doorway. Under the light's stimulation, a massive shadow gradually revealed its true form.
"Is it possible that's the boss," Amir said, "and if I kill it, the rest will run?"
"Or they'll go even more insane," Ahsoka added at once.
The dragon slugs were already right in front of them, blocking every possible escape route. Their rancid breath was practically in Amir's face.
"Protect Millisyn," Amir told the other two. Then he swung his lightsaber and went in. If he waited, he'd only become more passive. He charged straight forward, deciding to kill the big one and see what happened. These dragon slugs didn't act fearless on their own—something had triggered them, or something was directing them...
Ahsoka immediately filled the space Amir had left, stepping in front of Millisyn.
"Ah! Damn it!" Millisyn bared her teeth. Two little fangs made her look cute and fierce at the same time. She aimed at the nearest dragon slug and yanked the trigger wildly.
Ahsoka moved fast, her twin blades cutting down every dragon slug that closed in, creating a clear deterrent for the rest. She was holding up fairly easily.
But No. 32 wasn't as lucky. He could only rely on sheer performance—blaster fire and fists—to keep from being swallowed by the writhing, disgusting mass.
Amir's forward progress was extremely efficient. With a light flick of his hand, any dragon slug that got close was shoved away by Force push; the ones that ended up isolated were killed with casual, precise strikes. In the room, all you could see was a green blade whipping through the gloom, dragging a long shadow as it surged toward a door.
Almost there!
But then a large number of dragon slugs rushed in at once, flooding the space. They looked like they'd lost all reason, charging straight at Amir with mouths split wide, sticky and wet, ready to bite down.
Amir hadn't expected an ambush. In this turbulent Force environment, he could still use simple techniques like Force push, but his perception had been completely restricted—no more reading the field in advance like before.
He snapped into the opening stance of Form III and swung in a rapid sequence. One slug that got too close was cut clean in two from head to tail.
Slime splashed across Amir's face, twisting his expression, but his strikes only accelerated. In that moment he was like a living grinder, and the doorway ahead was the chute where the bodies were being fed.
But it couldn't last forever.
A massive lump of flesh squeezed in, and before Amir could fully react, he was slammed backward. He stumbled—but caught himself and didn't fall.
When he lifted his head, he realized the "big one" he'd been searching for had crawled out on its own.
"Whoa—big bug!!" Millisyn's excited voice rang out, making Amir's eyebrow twitch.
It was enormous. His lightsaber had already hit it, but to the creature it had only carved a shallow layer.
"Next time, I need to drive the blade straight into the head..." Amir stared at the dragon slug's head, thinking through his angle of attack—when the motion of its tail stole his attention.
White fog kept billowing out, like a bizarrely shaped humidifier. And embedded in the tail was a bright crystal.
A Massassi crystal—another one!
But then Amir thought of something and turned to look at No. 32.
The shiny-headed droid looked like he was drunk—swaying as he fought in close with the dragon slugs. Calling it a fight was generous; it was more like a weak, unsteady dance.
Millisyn and Ahsoka had filters to avoid inhaling the hallucinogenic white mist. But No. 32 had only awakened through his built-in electrical stimulation. After that, he'd seemed fine—but that was because the slugs had retreated and the hallucinogenic effect had weakened.
Now, the entire room was already blanketed in white fog!
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🌌 Star Wars: Relics of the Past
📢 The Force Calls! 📢
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