Samurai In the Time Rift 8.5

8.5

The Nihonzaru managed to make it to the hill and assembled there with the reinforcement of the First and Second Columns. Of the thousand who crossed over, only half made it there but they were still a force to be countered. Lord Jedi was exhausted from the escape but it was relieved that the warriors were still intact albeit at half the force.

"Send out the reports for the Sixth Column to continue with their task. We would hold on the enemy here." Lord Jedi gave the command. "Set up the defenses as taught to us by the blood kins."

Perimeters of rocky walls were soon in place, and the scouts deployed out. Lord Jedi was uneasy as it had not heard from the Sixth Column.

Lord Zethre was overjoyed that the strategy he deployed had worked. Now the Nihonzaru are surrounded on the hill, with no supplies. The three columns; Rock, Stone and Boulder are all in place, and when the time is right, they would mount an attack. It was the advisers who surprised him.

"Lord Zethre, we have a concern." The adviser to the Lord spoke out. "We counted five columns of the Nihonzaru, but their numbers are smaller than their full force. The Sixth Column are missing. This column may be smaller in numbers but they are deployed in many undeclared skirmishes on the far land."

"A concerned which you need not worried about." Lord Zethre smiled. "I have knowledge on the Sixth Level; they are at the borders."

"Lord Zethre, I ...." The adviser tried to speak up.

"Enough! I have no need of your advise. Be away." Lord Zethre dismissed his adviser. It turned to the leaders of the Hibagon Columns. "We would attacked at sunrise."

The Adviser to the Lord withdrew from the Hall, and was met in the corridor by one other Hibagon who had fought next to his trusted warrior, Tut. He was also the blood kin of Keo, whom he was grooming to replace the Lord Zethre.

"Satui, how are the warriors in the caves?"

"We await your command, Master." Satui replied but he continued on with sadness. "I was told that Senior Tut was discovered dead on our land. As was Keo."

The Adviser paused in his track and sighed. Then it continued on with the new command.

"Inform the Cave Column to revolt on my signal. Lord Zethre have to be overthrown this time."

Satui left for the Cave Column position. 

Lord Jedi looked out and saw the needed signal it was waiting for. It looked to the Column leaders and announced the preparation for the coming battles.

The tunnel they took was the one the amulet shined the brightest, with Taisa Mori took the lead. It was a narrow tunnel that at certain stretches required them to squeezed through sideways in a single file. The walls of the tunnel, was covered with grime and mosses that could had been there for ages.

Soon they came to a small cavern but it was devoid of anything important except the presence of small creatures; that illuminates on contact with the shinning light from the torches.

It was Bento who saw the smaller tunnel at the far wall. He crawled over there as its height was only waist high. Bento heard some sounds and crawled in. He saw there was a light at the end of the tunnel, and followed suit. Just before the opening, he stopped his movement. He crawled further in until he reached the edge. He found himself looking down near the ceiling of the cavern on a wondrous sight that he had never seen.

Bento was looking at a bigger cavern, with a high ceiling and walls. There was eight large metallic structures with multiple legs with a dome each on top of it. All the eight structures are joint at the dome to each other forming a hexagon in design. Each leg was the size of a large tree trunk and it stood high of over twenty man's height.

There were these eggs Bento have encountered in the other cavern, but here they are all lowered by the dome along its legs and placed beneath the metallic structure. There the eggs are small and are moved into their respective positions by the Guardian serpents. These looked like new eggs as they are still transparent in their shells, as can be seen the forming embryo with a tissue cord from one egg to another. At the end of the tissue cord, it was connected to the structure legs. The eggs were rolled out in stages of one per hummed heard by Bento between spaces of some time. The humming was loud and filled the chamber with its sound.

Bento looked from the eight domes to the left side where a larger dome was built in place; sitting over a large circumference of about fifty feet but it had a small shell opening on the side. At that side opening was a Hibagon tossing in dead Nihonzaru and Hibagon into the opening. The carcasses were brought in by the Hibagon warriors and left there in a pile. That was not the only opening to the dome as it had one more at the top with different connecting tunnels to the individual eight domes.

Bento had seen enough and crawled back. He reported to Taisa Mori on his observations. It prompted the Taisa and then Gunso to followed through. Once the leaders have seen it, they sat down to confer.

"The amulet glowed well in that chamber. I think that metallic structure represent the way out." Taisa Mori told them.

"It can't be as I seen the machine swallowed the bodies and churned out eggs." Gunso Mita for once disbelieved the leader's words. "I think the amulet could be wrong."

Edo added to the doubt by the Gunso, saying that the amulet could be wrong. In the end, Taisa volunteered to go in alone and checked the structures. There was silence among them on this request. Unknown to them, there was a serpent that slithered through another side tunnel and was coming at them. It was Bento who saw the serpent as it slithered both its heads through.

"Serpent!" Bento reacted with the only weapon he had; the bow which he used as a yari on it. He thrust the bow into the serpent left jaw and pushed in hard while Gunso Mita did the same on the right jaw with the yari. Taisa Mori came in from the side and slashed down with the katana on the necks of the serpent. It dropped down dead with one neck severed and the other half hanging onto the serpent body.

"That was close. If the serpent had sounded out to the others, we would all be dead." Edo commented. They then all proceeded to go back to the group for more weapons.

"I know of the chamber you mentioned. There is another way there." Aikin explained. He showed them outside the cave, to the right down the slope was another opening; a bigger one which they can marched in. He stumbled on it in one of his exploration but left when he saw the serpents.

"Then we would attacked in two groups; one from the top and the other from the ground level." Taisa Mori sounded out again, and then stopped.

"Give me a rope that I can climb from the hole to the dome. I would check the structure and if its sound, we would proceed." Taisa Mori asked of the Ainu pirate. Bento and Sun asked to followed along as back up.

"I would lead the rest to the lower cave entrance. Once we hear your signal, we would rushed in." Gunso Mita assured his leader, who turned away without acknowledging him. Bento who saw the rejection consoled the Gunso.

"I would watch out for the Taisa." The trio then left to picked up their additional supplies. Aikin passed the extra ropes length to the trio and also a few small containers of the gun powder.

"Used it well." Aikin reminded the samurai. The three of them then ran into the tunnel while Aikin mobilized his warriors.