Adel's home, Underground Pongo Village
In the cozy home of the elder pongo accommodating the El search party, a meeting is being held in the dinner table to find leads and get some information to their prisoner/patient.
"Wait, you're saying we beat you up and destroyed your ship and got nothing from it except injuries? Where's the El stone?!" Elsword exclaimed, pulling his hair out in frustration. The boy has already recovered from his wounds like the others after days of rest.
"As I said, your efforts are commendable but sadly pointless. The Nasods already have it before you attacked me and my ship." Raven shrugged with a smirk.
"Zip it! Oh man, now we had to go fight the Nasods again! Wally and his Nasods are already bad, now we have to fight an entire army of them!" The redhead complained.
"Backup for a minute. Wally and his Nasods?" Raven asked, sensing a story behind said words.
"Before Bethma, a noble from Elder city stole the El stone to power up his Nasod creations but their crude imitations compared to the real thing." Rena answered him.
"Ahhh. You guys went through a lot since then huh?"
"Like you won't believe." Aisha replied with narrowed eyes, eyeing the man with distrust and suspicion.
"What I don't understand is why you're here and not imprisoned to whatever cell the Pongo's have here!" Aisha points an accusing ginger at Raven, making the man flinch.
"..."
"..."
"Aisha? We already beaten him." Elsword said with a tone that says 'Are you dumb?'.
"I know that twerp!" Aisha smacks the boy's head, not liking his tone.
"What I don't understand is why is he here with us in discussion? His the bad guy! Aren't he supposed to go in jail or something in here?!" Aisha continued.
"Ahh, the Pongo's actually forgave him. They knew about his mind control and condition." Rena replied to her.
"I already apologized to the Pongo's." Raven added.
"See? No problem. Raven can stay here for a while and he probably knows stuff we don't." Now being teamed up by her own teammates, Aisha slumped in defeat and began sulking.
"Stupid nice..." She muttered.
"Moving on from that? What's the likelihood we can take the El stone from the Nasods?" Rena asks Raven.
"Hmm, zero." Elsword's head faceplants on the table with a groan at the man's words.
"Sorry to kill the optimism but finding the El Stone at this time impossible." Raven shook his head, "I already gave it to the Nasods a long time ago and they have most likely secured it in an unknown location."
"Really? Can't you think of a place they could be keeping it? You said it before, the Nasods are building an army." Aisha points out.
"Already did but no luck. The Nasods have a foundry in one of the island's cliffs but I know that it wasn't stored there." Raven replied.
"That leads us to a dead end." Rena frowned in frustration.
They were so close and yet so far!
"Great. So what now? We can simply bust every single Nasod in the island if there's no other plan." Elsword said as he turned his head from the table.
"That would take ages and alert the rest of the Nasods. But....I think there is a way." Raven pondered.
"Oh? What is it?" Rena inquired. Any lead is useful right now.
"Haro." Raven said.
"Haro?" The three tilted their heads, confused and wondering who's Haro.
"The Nasod." Raven pointed at the dormant Nasod in the corner.
"Oh,your Nasod friend?" Rena asks.
"Not a friend." Raven grunts in denial, "Haro is Nasod but they're a useful one. On my ship, they could control and interface with the ship's systems."
"Meaning?" Elsword asks, not really understanding all of it.
"Meaning if Haro could connect to the Nasod's data logs, they can find where your El stone is."
"That's...pretty convenient." Aisha blinks.
"We'll take it. That's the only lead we have at the moment." Rena shrugs helplessly.
"But your friend's asleep or something." Aisha threw thumb at the Nasod, "How do you think it can still find the El stone?"
"Remember the Nasod foundry I just said?" Raven smirked, "The Pongo's can't repair Haro, they tried but I think the foundry can or maybe something in there can."
"So just a hunch?" Elsword asked to which Raven nods.
"Better than nothing. You know where the foundry?" Rena asks.
"I do but it's only accessible by airship which I remind you, you guy's blew up." Raven said with a smirk.
The trio had the decency to blush. Truthfully, crashing the ship wasn't part of the plan but stuff happened.
"My bad." Rena blushed, remembering it's her plan that crashed the ship. Aisha made it her point to not look at anyone, whistling innocently.
For once, Elsword is not the cause of the problem.
"Then how do we get there? Scale the cliff?" Everyone shuddered at the boy's recommendations. No one wants to scale a cliff high up in the sky with the only thing down below is the vast ocean.
"Tunnels. I think the Pongo's know a tunnel system leading there if we're lucky." Raven suggested.
"Ugh! We're never lucky like that." Aisha grumbled.
Yet everyone agreed it's their only hope. Time to speak with Adel. Speaking of said Pongo, the old Pongo chief crashed into the meeting in a panic.
"Everyone! There's trouble in the tunnels!"
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Lower Tunnels
"Alterasia! You mean to say there's an entire cave of Alterasia plants under the tunnels!" Rena exclaimed in shock and horror.
"Yes! They're remnants of the Nasod War but my ancestors had trapped them deep in the lower Tunnels in a cave-in. But now, they somehow managed to infect a massive Nasod machine and now digging their way out!" The panicked Pongo explained, not knowing what to do.
"What's Alterasia?" Elsword whispered to Aisha beside him, lips directly into her ear.
"Too close, twerp!" Aisha hissed with blush before calming down with a cough.
"Alterasia plants are ancient plants deployed in the Nasod War. Velder developed them from Elven plants, changing them into weapons of war. In the war, the Alterasia took their role as a disease to the Nasods." Aisha began explaining. In the background, Rena and Raven are talking to the Pongo Chief.
"Disease? Can Nasod get sick?" Elsword wondered.
"Not at all. By disease, I meant they acted like one. Nasod's infected by Alterasia loses control as the plant takes over their body. This turn the tide of the war as the Nasod naturally lose most of their numbers under the Alterasia's control."
"Wait a minute. The graveyard up above. Do you think?" Elsword mused, remembering the moss covered broken Nasods above ground.
"Most likely if I say so." Aisha nods at his deduction.
"So we're fighting plants. This will be easy then." Elsword said.
"I don't think so." Aisha crossed her arms.
"Why not? They're plants inside broken Nasods." Elsword replied.
"It's Nasods. There's nothing simple taking down a Nasod. Remember Wally?" Elsword winced at the memory. Stupid old man and stupid beard.
Suddenly, Rena and Raven returned. This time, the older man has a blade with him courtesy of the Pongo Blacksmiths.
"Adel said the Alterasia are digging their way towards the village. We have to stop it before it turns the entire village as it's new nest." Rena explained what Adel told her.
"Yikes." Elsword and Aisha winced at the thought.
"Sadly, out furry friends can't help. There no fighters so it's up to us to settle this." Raven grunted.
"Wait a minute? Your joining us?!" Aisha pointed at the man suspiciously while Elsword looked like Christmas came early.
"Definitely. Still need to repay the Pongo's for their forgiveness."
"Ugh, that's a valid point. But still!" Aisha's not convinced.
"Now, now, Aisha. We need all the help right now. Raven's the only one most knowledgeable about the Nasods. Not to mention, he's out only lead to the El stone." Rena reprimanded the girl, using her scolding tone.
"Urk!" Aisha choked.
"Well I don't care if Raven's joins us or not but his good on my books. By the way, you gotta show me some moves later." Elsword happily agreed to Raven's cooperation.
"Then we have no time to delay. Let's go." Rena said before taking point, jumping in the tunnel leading to their foe.
"Alright, another fight coming up." Elsword followed behind her.
"I still don't trust you but you better not do anything funny." Aisha points her wand at the man before jumping in herself.
"You shouldn't be." Raven grunts with a smirk before looking back at Adel's home.
"Stay still Haro, I'll be back and fix you after this." He whispered before jumping in.
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Deep in the lower Tunnels, mayhem ensued.
"Ugh, why is these guys not going down?! They're barely hanging on!" Aisha yelled in the middle of the chaos, throwing a fireball to blast away a ruined Nasod Digger. The broken machinery, filled with holes and missing some limbs, melted under the assault yet it continued to march towards her.
Elsword's sword sent it flying instead.
"No clue but they're the best dummies I have used for a while now!" The boy laughed, launching himself to another group.
On a high ground amongst the pipelines, Rena sniped and hindered infected Nasod movements. Her arrows normally lethal against Nasods but with Alterasia's influence, it's nothing but paper cuts.
The entire tunnel itself is brimming with infected Nasods, broken yet still marching and moving under the malignant plant's influence. Amongst the group, only Elsword and Raven are the only one capable of putting said Nasods permanently for good. Although Aisha could, the tunnel leave little to no room for her stronger magics, friendly fire is unavoidable so she joined Rena in support.
"Save your strength, kid. Adel said there's a massive Nasod tunneling it's way to the village at the moment. Aim for main body where the Alterasia is nesting." Raven called out to the redhead, pulling out his blade from a Nasod.
"Got it!" With a heavy kick, he folded the Nasod in front of him, sending the poor robot back to it's comrades.
"Damn freakish Red knight strength." Raven shook his head. Looks likes he's advice doesn't apply to the boy.
"Move ahead! I'm seeing a new wave!" Rena shouted behind, firing a massive Phoenix to light up the entire tunnel.
At the end, there's still lot more ground to cover and infected Nasods to break.
"Tsk!" Raven clicked his tongue before joining Elsword in a frontal charge.
A massive digger Nasod greeted them, swinging it's massive drill towards the boys. Elsword deflected the strike upwards, lifting the Nasod's arm upwards and leaving it wide open for Raven. Raven ducked inside it's range and swung. It's head flew, sliced off the main body and exposing it's interiors infected with green growths, Alterasia infection. An arrow flew inside, striking the core Alterasia inside and turning the Nasod back to it's inanimate state. It was then caught under a massive push of magic, sending it flying to a group of Nasods.
Together, the group seamlessly worked on wiping out the Nasods and the Alterasia. Elsword and Raven took the front, smashing into the Nasod force, leaving openings for Aisha and Rena to take advantage or downright destroying anything in their path. Especially Raven, now with a complete set of arms. His balance restored albeit rusty, his skill and muscle memory is still there. His blade flew fast and struck at any direction. If Elsword is pure strength and skill, Raven is pure skill, speed, and lethality.
"Okay, you gotta teach me that!" Elsword yelled, seeing Raven launch an infected Nasod in the air in a two handed technique.
"Later!" Raven replied, shadow stepping out of the way as Aisha fired off lightning strikes.
Right behind them, Rena frowned.
Why is that there's a lot of Nasods in the tunnel? Why aren't they helping the supposed big one dig towards the Pongo village?
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After half an hour of fighting, they finally reached the end and saw their adversary.
"That's not a Nasod." Raven said as he stared at the massive thing digging at the cave tunnel with it's barehands.
"It's not?" Rena asked, wondering why he said that. It looks like a Nasod to her.
"Yeah, what gives?" Elsword added.
"I know Nasods and how they design their unit models. THAT is no Nasod design."
"It looks too human." The trio grew alarmed.
"Wally?!" Aisha hissed.
"That old fart is already dead when his ship crashed. Probably?" Elsword said unsurely. They really didn't confirm if that old man died.
"Well Nasod or not, we have to stop it." Rena said, readying her bow.
"And here I thought this will be an easy one like those in the tunnels." Aisha sighs before she began to gather man's in the air.
"Kid. Follow me and don't do anything stupid." Raven said as he jumped down.
"Hey! I'm not that stupid!" Elsword shouted back, a little offended, before jumping after him.
"Yes, you are!" Aisha can't help but jab in some too.
"Hey!"
As they approached the massive machine, it finally noticed them. True to Raven's words, it looked too humanoid for a Nasod design. It's also massive in size, the biggest Nasod they had ever seen. It's foot alone is the size of Wally's best creation and that doesn't bode well for them.
With a wordless roar, the Nasod pulled out it's weapons.
"Are those laser swords!" Elsword looked in awe at the dual Beam Sabers wielded by the giant Nasod.
"Idiot, stop gawking and dodge!" Aisha screamed, waking up the boy from his awe and yelping as he rolled to the side. Not a moment laster, the ground melted into molten slag as a beam saber stabbed where he was.
Thus the battle begin!
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Boom, surprise cliffhanger!!!