Chapter 201: I Bet This Lava Is Fake
"You're welcome."
Swampfire stood amidst the settling dust, crossing his vine-covered arms. He fully expected the towering alien he had just pulled from the brink of death to offer at least a grudging nod of gratitude.
"You actually... you filthy thing! Let go of me!"
The Highbreed violently wrenched his arm away, stumbling back a few paces. He frantically brushed at his pristine, pale armor as if Swampfire's touch had contaminated him with a lethal plague.
Swampfire threw his hands up, scattering a few glowing embers into the cool night air. His patience, already running thin, finally snapped. "What is exactly wrong with you?!"
The Highbreed furiously scrubbed at his forearm, his crimson eyes glaring with absolute disgust.
"Okay, you don't like the alien I transform into, I get it," Swampfire continued, gesturing wildly at his own mud-caked, flame-venting body. "But... please, I am literally saving your life here!"
Hearing the exasperated plea, the Highbreed simply scoffed. He offered no words of thanks, nor did he acknowledge the danger they had just escaped. Instead, he turned his broad back to Swampfire and began marching off into the desolate, darkening wasteland.
"Hey! Where do you think you're going?" Swampfire called out, staring in utter confusion at the retreating figure.
The Highbreed did not break his stride. "I need to travel through the night. The cool evening wind has already greatly invigorated my superior physiology. I do not need the assistance of a lower lifeform, and I certainly do not want to play any more of your ridiculous games."
With his chin held high, the Highbreed vanished into the shadows of the craggy terrain.
"Suit yourself, jerk," Swampfire muttered.
A brilliant flash of emerald light illuminated the wasteland, and the towering plant alien shrank back down into the form of Ben Tennyson. Ben let out a long breath, rubbed his neck, and found a relatively flat boulder to sit on. He began gathering dry brush to start a fire.
Meanwhile, the Highbreed marched silently through the pitch-black wilderness. The wind howled through the jagged rocks, carrying a biting chill. Suddenly, a massive, guttural roar echoed from the darkness ahead, vibrating through the very ground beneath his feet. A pair of massive, glowing yellow eyes flickered in the distance, accompanied by the heavy crunch of massive claws crushing stone.
The Highbreed froze. He stared into the abyss for a long, silent moment.
Without a word, he executed a crisp about-face and marched briskly back the way he came.
A few minutes later, he stepped into the warm, flickering glow of a newly built campfire. Ben sat on a rock, tossing a dry twig into the flames.
The Highbreed cleared his throat, refusing to meet Ben's eyes. "Let us set up camp here."
He had suddenly realized that wandering blindly through an uncharted, predator-infested wasteland in the dead of night was perhaps not the wisest course of action.
"Find a rock and take a seat," Ben said casually, poking the fire with a stick. He decided not to mock the alien's incredibly fast retreat.
The Highbreed glared at the crackling flames, crossing his arms in deep annoyance. "Are you attempting to use this primitive hellfire to weaken my power? Hmph. A futile effort. There is no need for such trickery."
Ben rolled his eyes, staring at the alien. This guy was suffering from a terminal case of delusions of grandeur.
"This is a campfire," Ben explained slowly, as if speaking to a toddler. "It is an Earth tradition. People sit around a campfire, warm up, and talk to pass the time."
"Heh. Talk to you?" The Highbreed sneered, looking away with a haughty tilt of his head. "What possible point could there be in conversing with a filthy vermin?"
Despite his harsh words, he remained standing right next to the fire, occasionally shifting his weight. He clearly wanted to engage, but his overwhelming pride absolutely refused to let him admit it.
Ben didn't pay too much attention to the attitude. He tossed another branch into the fire. "My name is Ben. Ben Tennyson. How should I address you?"
The alien straightened his posture, his voice booming with theatrical authority. "I am Reinrassig the Third, seventh son of the noble Highbreed of the House of Deris, direct descendant of the pure-blooded High Order of Rash, and also the supreme commander of..."
"Cool. Then I'll just call you Reiny," Ben interrupted, completely ignoring the majestic pedigree.
Reinrassig's jaw dropped. "You are unspeakably rude, Ben Tennyson!"
For the next hour, Reiny paced around the fire, lecturing Ben at length about the absolute genetic superiority of the Highbreed. He detailed their flawless lineage, disparaged Earthlings as nothing more than crawling mud-dwellers, and proceeded to scold Ben for his lack of manners, hygiene, and general existence.
It was, by all metrics, a terrible conversation.
Eventually, Ben tuned him out entirely. He simply lay down on his side, using his jacket as a makeshift pillow. Reiny, having exhausted his vocabulary of insults, sat on a rock on the opposite side of the fire, turning his back to Ben in a display of supreme indignation.
Despite the silence, both of them kept their ears strained, highly alert to the other's movements.
As the hours dragged on, the rhythmic crackle of the fire began to lull Ben into a state of heavy drowsiness. His eyelids fluttered shut.
Just as he drifted off, a sudden rustle of movement snapped him awake.
Ben opened his eyes just in time to see Reiny lunging directly at him, a massive, clawed hand swinging down with terrifying speed.
Adrenaline flooded Ben's veins. With no time to reach for the Omnitrix, he instinctively threw his arms up over his face, bracing for a lethal strike.
But the crushing blow never came.
Instead, a sickening crunch echoed in the air, followed by a wet tearing sound. Ben lowered his arms, his eyes widening in shock.
Reiny had not attacked him. The Highbreed's hand was clamped tightly around a grotesque, heavily armored centipede-like bug, roughly forty centimeters long. The creature had been mere inches from Ben's neck, its venomous mandibles dripping with glowing green acid.
The bug thrashed violently in Reiny's grip. With a vicious hiss, it whipped its head around and clamped its razor-sharp jaws directly onto Reiny's wrist.
Before the Highbreed could react, the bug's mandibles sheared straight through his armor, flesh, and bone.
Reiny's severed right hand plummeted to the dirt, still clutching the crushed bug.
"Ahhhh!!!" Reiny staggered back, clutching his spurting stump as immense, blinding pain washed over his face. He fell to his knees, his pride entirely forgotten in the face of the agony.
Ben scrambled to his feet, kicking the twitching bug into the campfire where it burst into foul-smelling smoke. He rushed over to the kneeling alien. "Hold on! Can your species regenerate?"
Reiny gritted his teeth, his breathing ragged. "I am... not some low-level regenerative organism! We are pure!"
"Okay, but it can still be fixed," Ben said, his eyes darting from the bleeding stump to the severed hand lying in the dirt. An idea clicked in his mind.
"This kind of injury cannot be restored!" Reiny gasped, his pale face losing even more color. "The tissue damage is too severe. I am ruined..."
Ben didn't waste time arguing. He slammed his hand down on the Omnitrix dial.
A blinding flash of green light engulfed the campsite. Where Ben once stood, Swampfire now towered, the methane vents on his shoulders flaring with green flames.
Without a word, Swampfire knelt down and scooped up Reiny's severed hand. He stepped toward the trembling Highbreed, ignoring the alien's flinching. Swampfire pressed the severed hand directly against the bleeding stump.
Thick, green vines suddenly burst from Swampfire's fingertips. The vines burrowed into Reiny's flesh, acting like living sutures. They rapidly knitted bone to bone, reconnected severed veins, and fused the torn muscles back together. A surge of powerful, restorative vitality pumped from Swampfire's body into the Highbreed's arm.
Within seconds, the gruesome wound was completely sealed, leaving only a faint, pale scar.
"Feeling better?" Swampfire asked, his deep voice rumbling.
Another flash of green light, and Ben was back, wiping a bead of sweat from his forehead.
Reiny slowly lifted his right hand, flexing his fingers in absolute disbelief. He stared at Ben, his crimson eyes filled with deep confusion. "Why... why did you save me?"
Ben crossed his arms, raising an eyebrow. "Then why did you save me from that bug?"
Reiny stiffened, quickly averting his gaze. He cleared his throat, attempting to regain his aristocratic composure. "Because... preventing that venomous creature from harming you is currently in my best interest. I require a guide."
Ben waved his hand dismissively, a knowing smirk on his face. "Alright, alright, I get it. You're welcome." He completely understood the alien's stubborn refusal to admit he cared.
Just as the tension began to settle, a long, echoing howl shattered the silence of the night.
Ben and Reiny instantly snapped their heads toward the sound. Under the pale moonlight, a massive, bipedal wolf-like creature was sprinting across the rocky terrain, heading directly for their camp.
"Little Black?!" Ben's face lit up with immediate joy. If Klein's Loboan summon was here, it meant they were finally one step closer to getting out of this mess and going home.
The Loboan skidded to a halt at the edge of the firelight. Instead of attacking, it reached behind its back and pulled out a large wooden sign.
Written on the sign in bold, neat letters were the words: I am an emotionless NPC.
Ben stared at the sign, blinking slowly.
The Loboan then pointed a sharp claw at Ben, pointed at Reiny, and finally jabbed a thumb at its own chest.
"Are you telling us to go with you?" Ben asked, quickly catching on to the bizarre pantomime.
The Loboan gave a single, sharp nod, then turned on its heel and began walking away into the darkness.
Ben and Reiny exchanged a long, bewildered glance. With no better options, they kicked dirt over the campfire and followed the creature.
The Loboan led them across the jagged wasteland for nearly an hour until they reached the base of a massive, obsidian mountain. It stopped at the edge of a gaping, pitch-black cave entrance that seemed to plunge straight down into the bowels of the earth.
The Loboan stood up straight and pointed firmly down into the abyss.
Ben walked to the edge, peering into the suffocating darkness. "Are you seriously telling us to go down there?"
The Loboan nodded again, its expression entirely deadpan.
Ben looked at the bottomless, dark pit, then back at the Loboan. He gritted his teeth. "Fine. Let's hope this isn't a trap."
Taking a deep breath, Ben jumped into the void.
Instead of a deadly freefall, his boots hit a smooth, steeply angled stone surface. It was a massive underground slide. Ben shot downward at breakneck speed, plunging to an unknown depth beneath the planet's crust.
Before he could even process his surroundings, a wave of unimaginably intense heat slammed into him, stealing the breath from his lungs.
He shot out of the tunnel and landed heavily on a narrow stone ledge. A second later, the Loboan and Reiny came sliding out behind him, crashing onto the rocky platform.
As soon as they recovered, they realized exactly where they were. Ben stood at the edge of a massive fault line, staring down into a gargantuan subterranean cavern.
Reiny walked over, brushing dust from his armor, and looked over the edge.
Hundreds of feet below them, a massive river of bubbling, glowing orange magma flowed sluggishly through the cavern, illuminating the jagged walls with a hellish light. The heat radiating from the molten rock was blistering, causing the air to warp and shimmer.
Ben swallowed hard, his throat already feeling parched. He forced a strained smile, pulling at the corners of his mouth. "This time, they don't expect us to jump into this, do they?"
Reiny scoffed, stepping right up to the precipice. "Ben Tennyson, your mind is still too weak. You fail to see the grand design. I have completely figured out Klein's ridiculous routine." The Highbreed pointed a confident finger at the bubbling lava. "I dare say, this magma must be entirely fake! An optical illusion designed to test our resolve!"
Saying this, Reiny bent his knees, fully preparing to dive headfirst into the molten rock.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Ben lunged forward, grabbing the Highbreed by the shoulder plating and violently yanking him back from the edge. "Are you missing a screw in your head?! Haven't you felt the surrounding temperature rising?! My boots are literally melting! The magma is real!"
Ben stared at his towering companion in absolute disbelief. If this teammate wasn't actively trying to get them killed, he was doing a fantastic impression of it.
Reiny looked down at Ben, his crimson eyes narrowing suspiciously. "Why do I feel as though you are insulting my intellect?"
Ben shook his head, keeping his face perfectly neutral. "I have no idea what you're talking about."
Reiny brushed Ben's hand off his shoulder. "So, if we are not to jump, what exactly are we supposed to do?"
As if answering his question, the river of magma below suddenly violently erupted.
A geyser of molten rock shot into the air, and from the fiery depths, a colossal, terrifying creature breached the surface. It was a Mutated Devourer Worm, its massive, segmented body glowing cherry-red from the heat. Its gaping maw was lined with hundreds of spinning, razor-sharp teeth, each the size of a car.
"I think I know what we need to do," Ben yelled over the deafening roar of the beast.
As soon as the words left his mouth, the Mutated Devourer Worm lunged upward with terrifying speed. Its massive jaws slammed into the stone ledge right where Reiny was standing, biting off a massive chunk of earth and rock.
The ground crumbled beneath the Highbreed's feet. Reiny fell backward, tumbling directly into the monster's gaping mouth.
In a desperate bid for survival, Reiny violently kicked his legs out, propping his boots against one row of the spinning teeth and his hands against the upper palate, suspending himself precariously above the worm's dark, crushing throat.
"Reiny!"
Seeing the Highbreed about to be swallowed alive, Ben slammed his hand onto the Omnitrix dial.
A flash of green light illuminated the cavern, and the spectral, moth-like form of Big Chill took to the air.
Ice instantly formed along Big Chill's dark blue wings as he dove off the crumbling ledge, flying straight toward the monstrous worm.
Big Chill folded his wings, his body turning completely intangible. He phased straight through the thick, armored hide of the Mutated Devourer Worm, diving directly into the creature's massive mouth.
Hovering right beside the struggling Highbreed, Big Chill opened his mouth and unleashed a torrent of absolute zero vapor. He flew in a rapid circle around the inside of the worm's maw, blasting the spinning rows of teeth with concentrated, freezing wind.
The intense, localized cold clashed violently with the ambient heat. The Mutated Devourer Worm's teeth, previously superheated by the magma, were instantly flash-frozen. The rapid change in temperature caused the massive fangs to turn brittle and crack.
Feeling the teeth beneath his boots weaken, Reiny seized the opportunity. He channeled all his enhanced Highbreed strength into his legs and kicked outward with explosive force.
The frozen teeth shattered like cheap glass, sending massive shards of ice and bone plummeting down the worm's throat.
With its grip destroyed, the worm roared in agony. Reiny launched himself out of the beast's mouth, soaring through the air and crashing safely back onto the solid stone ledge.
He scrambled to his feet, glaring down at the thrashing monster.
"Ben Tennyson!" Reiny bellowed, pointing a commanding finger at the beast. "Freeze it! From the inside out! Keep freezing that wretched creature until I tell you to stop!"
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