Splatoon Manga: NatuRun

Chestnut I: Confrontation

🌰Chestnut I: Confrontation

The squidbeak were following the path back as told. They had to keep going until they found a ravine lined with rocks. This was it, they were about to face Takomorika. What exactly she had up her sleeve, they didn't know. Other than plant attacks, she could be hiding something new.

The squidbeak didn't have anything to exactly...destroy plants with. Their traits had elements, yes. They powered up whenever their traits showed up in a pure form, yes. But the elements could not be weaponized, and the boost was really just physical. They needed things like fire or ice to weaken and/or destroy the plants, and steel or rocks to cut through them. They didn't have those.

They had their turfing weapons and that was it. They didn't have their Nexus Laser weapons, because those were being worked on at the moment. They didn't have their shadowling weapons because those hadn't been programmed into their pins. God, they wished they had those swords though. Those would make for a good plant-cutting tool.

As they kept walking, the squidbeak began coming up with strategies. There were eight of them, and one of her. However, she could create plant beasts if needed, and she was aware of the fact that they'd all lost to the crane. Would she summon seven cranes to fight alongside her? Surely not, that must take up a lot of energy...

"There!" Gloves shouted.

The squidbeak halted to see what it was. Sure enough, it seemed like a massive ravine was in front of them. It was almost as if someone had tried to crack the ground open like an egg.

"But is it lined with rocks?" Rider asked.

The squidbeak carefully approached the edge to see if there were rocks either lining the sides, or deep down. Sure enough, there was a bit of both.

"Yup! So what was the next part?" Goggles said.

"Follow a path of trees containing vines..." Nana replied, though she trailed off.

This whole thing was making her nervous. Hachi noticed, and tried to snap her out of it.

"Untiiiiil...?" he asked slowly.

"We find a path with small flowers on it?" Nana replied.

"Ah, let's look then!" Prince said.

The squidbeak backed away from the ravine and began looking for trees with vines. It shouldn't have been hard, but with a darkening sky, it was made to be. They had to squint carefully and walk down the path a little just to be sure.

"Is that one down there?" Rider asked.

The squidbeak turned to where Rider was pointing, a small tree that had vines draped around it. They looked back towards the other direction to make sure there weren't any other trees with vines that Rider was missing.

"Well, I don't see any other trees with vines on them, so it must be it!" Hachi replied happily.

"I suppose we must follow that tree, then," Emperor said.

So with Rider leading the way (as he was also the furthest down), the squidbeak continued their walk. As the approached the one tree, they soon saw another one similar to it that was a little deeper into the forest. Even though there was no clearly marked path, the squidbeak knew they had to follow it anyway. As they stepped into the woods from the dirt path by the ravine, they felt smaller plant leaves brush up against their ankles. It was...slightly uncomfortable.