Chihiro banged her head against the side of the basket as Flynn flew them through peaceful, serene, and utterly boring blue skies. She had a feeling that the trip to Stonetown would probably take a while, going off of how far away Diggs had said it was, but she didn't think it'd take this long! A part of her half-wished she could have convinced the 'Landers to come with her, given that they'd probably be good company right about now. But, what's done was done at this point, and all she could do was rest against the basket. She tried thumb wrestling with herself, but thumb wrestling wasn't quite as fun when you were the only challenger, so she bobbed her head down. Maybe she could catch a few winks of sleep while she waited for their arrival. Chihiro furled herself into a ball, and closed her eyes as her mind drifted away to places far away from the humble hot air balloon she was inside right now. All was peaceful…

That was, until Diggs let out a vocal scream and latched onto the side of the basket!

"WHAT HAPPENED?" Chihiro shouted as she jumped out of her sleepy trance. "DID KAOS SHOW UP AFTER ALL SO I COULD KICK HIS SORRY BUTT?!"

"We're here!" Diggs exclaimed as he pointed a claw down below and shuddered. "But, the ground is shaking something terrible. I sense some baaad vibrations here."

Chihiro walked over to Diggs' side and leaned herself over the basket to find that sure enough, he was right! The infinite void of blue sky parted to reveal a grassy terrain! It was accented with equally-grassy cliffs topped with walls and elaborate towers made entirely of tough-looking gray stone. But, that wasn't the most eye-catching part of the island! All around the island there were clusters of dots that vaguely resembled a crowd—guards sent to protect the Eternal Earth Source?

"That's strange." Diggs adjusted his glasses. "Last time I was here, there weren't half as many guards! Heck, there weren't any guards at all!"

"Maybe they wanted some extra protection, just in case?"

Chihiro tilted her head, squeaked, and ducked as some vaguely gremlin-looking thing zipped over her head! Once the air was clear and they drew closer, Chihiro had found that she was completely wrong. There, soldiers of all species—trolls, drow, the spare gremlin, or some odd monkey-gremlin-looking hybrid thingie—decked out in shiny armor duked it out with Terrafin, Bash and Dino-Rang down below! There was no mistaking it; these had to have been Kaos's soldiers!

"Looks like Hugo was right," Flynn said as he gripped the balloon's steering wheel tighter, "Big Head must've found out about the Eternal Earth Source!"

"Me and my big mouth," Chihiro lamented as she hung her head, then shook it and looked further over the battlefield.

Now that they got closer, it kind of looked like the soldiers had… Cannons? Hopefully they only shot like, water or confetti or something and not—CRAP! CANNONBALLS! Chihiro screamed and ducked as Flynn swerved out the way of a cannonball parade, slunk down, and held a hand over her rapidly-beating heart. Her breath was heavy as she collected herself, but screamed again as Flynn spun around and dodge the cannonballs!

"There's too many of these guys!" Flynn shouted as he spun his steering wheel with sweat poured down his forehead like rain. "Even with my piloting expertise, this is gonna be a closE CALLLLLLLLLLLL!"

With a loud crash, one of the cannonballs pushed past the basket and sent them all spinning like a toy top! The basket they all sat in was a rapid storm as it violently flung itself to and fro in the midst of all the chaos without any single drop of care taken for those inside!

"WHOA, WHOA, WHOA!" Diggs screamed as he rolled out the basket and grasped its side as tightly as possible!

"Diggs!" Chihiro exclaimed as she rushed to Diggs' side and pulled him back in. The two of them caught their collective breath while Flynn gritted his teeth and furrowed his eyebrows in a way that, for once, was kind of intimidating.

"Alrighty, I didn't wanna do this," Flynn proclaimed as he clutched the steering wheel tight, "but you guys have left me no choice! It's time for the ATTACK PROTOCOL!"

Flynn flicked a switch on the balloon control panel, and in that very moment, the outer panels of the basket opened up to reveal tons and tons of weapons! Missile launchers, cannons, laser blasters, sheep shooters… If one could name it, it was probably in that very array and waiting to fire!

Flynn smirked as Chihiro and Diggs watched the show with wide, sparkly eyes. "While you guys were off savin' Skylands—" Flynn brushed a hand against the basket's rim "—I've been workin' on some pretty impressive upgrades for old Balloony here! She's ready and rarin' to go!"

As Flynn said this, a gigantic, flashing red button emerged from the center of the steering wheel!

"BOOM!"

With that said, Flynn slammed the button and all the weaponry shot out at once! Clouds of smoke cast out from the browning battlefield as fleets of soldiers were blasted away and cannons were reduced to mere bits! But, Kaos's forces were far from intimidated! They merely wheeled in larger, shinier cannons!

"You wanna play that game, huh?" Flynn slammed another button as his artillery refilled, and slammed the giant button once more. "DOUBLE BOOM!"

Chihiro watched in awe as the newly-refilled artillery ensemble blew the newer cannons to bits, but it was no use! The enemy soldiers just pulled out more!

"TRIPLE BOOM!"

And so, a tug-of-artillery-war ensued. The enemies would bring out their cannons, Flynn would refill his, and in response they'd only bring out bigger, more impressive cannons that would get blasted to bits in an endless cycle.

"QUADRUPLE BOOM!"

"QUINTUPLE BOOM!"

"ONE HUNDRED BOOMS!"

Chihiro yawned and leaned against the side of the basket as the frantic power struggle caused the battle to grow from impressive to tiring. She was ready to fall asleep once more, but awakened and scrambled back as a gigantic shadow cast all over the island! Chihiro gulped as a ginormous cannon, one so big that it probably added a ton to the island's weight, loomed over them with a fairly intimidating aura!

"Alright, nothing to worry about!" Flynn said with a gulp and a button press. "My artillery's ready for—" Flynn winced as the artillery only made a sad clicking noise "—anything?"

Chihiro, Diggs and Flynn all looked up at the cannon with completely wide eyes. Everything around was silent save for the fizzle of a burning fuse until the cannon shot a gigantic cannonball straight at the balloon's, well, balloon and exploded!

Not that Chihiro or anybody else noticed. They were too busy screaming and hanging on for their dear lives as the balloon crash-landed right into the ground! With a resonant sound of splintering wood, Chihiro coughed and crawled out of the wreckage. She looked up to see Terrafin, Dino-Rang and Bash as they looked down on her with slight concern and winced.

"Hey guys!" Chihiro said as she smiled and waved at them. "We made it!"

Before anybody could say anything else, however, a shing squealed as the soldiers whipped out their weapons in one direction—theirs!

"And it looks like we've got company!"

Chihiro cracked her knuckles, and dashed into the fray with Terrafin, Dino-Rang and Bash in close pursuit! The artillery may have stopped firing, but the real battle just began!

Terrafin was the first to strike out of the quartet. He dove underground before anybody on either side could even blink, and his whole body completely masked underneath the churned, rich brown earth! The soldiers trailed to ground in some attempt to find him, but he found them first! Terrafin backflipped out of the ground, bodyslammed right into the small platoon of drow soldiers and sent them flying in all angles! While they got up and stumbled about, Terrafin slid forward and punched them straight into a nearby wall.

"Not bad for a warmup," Terrafin remarked as he dusted off his bulky hands and perked up as he heard terrified screams, as did those around him.

All eyes fixed on the source of the screams, which was none other a trio of gremlin soldiers who ran down a hill with Bash in hot pursuit! As the soldiers ran down the hill, Bash curled himself into a ball and rolled down with the slope of the hill an amplifier for his natural speed. Bash was a bowling ball, the gremlins his pins, and he rammed right into them and tossed them into the skies!

"STRIKE!" Bash proclaimed right as the soldiers dropped back down on their feet, "or not."

Bash turned around as the gremlin soldiers glared him down, but he didn't seem intimidated in the slightest. He only gently bopped his tail against the earth. "You guys are tougher than you look." Bash made a toothy grin as he raised his tail. "Good thing I am, too!"

Bash slammed his tail right onto the ground and created an earthquake of awesomely seismic proportions! While everybody else shuddered and froze from the vibrations, Bash stood tall and firm as he slammed his tail once more and caused gigantic stone pillars to explode from the cracks! These stone pillars manifested right under the gremlin soldiers, and before they could even blink they were sent flying out of everyone's view.

Bash and Terrafin took in their victories while the quakes receded, but, while they did this, another gigantic battle unfolded.

Chihiro let out cries of war as she slashed through waves of soldiers with a magic-powered sword, her breath heavy and her legs shaken with exhaustion. But she wasn't going to give up, not at all! She raised her sword, and a decently-timed spear shot through the crowds and shattered it!

"Dang it," Chihiro panted as the shards rained down on her, for they were reduced to little more than faint magical dust, "I should really practice my swordfighting more."

As Chihiro teleported out of her enemy circle and caught her breath, her brown eyes glazed over to Dino-Rang, who was still hard at work! With a few flicks of his wrists, he shot out his boomerangs through clusters of enemy soldiers and whacked them straight in their guts. Those boomerangs must be a lot harder than they looked, but, he still looked like he was in a pinch! The erratic, labored steps he took back and forth and his heavy breathing indicated he did a lot already! But unfortunately, the massive swarm of enemies that surrounded him seemed raring to go.

"Guess that's my cue!" Chihiro shouted as she held out her hand, which now flared with cyan magic.

A bright cyan sphere of magic shot out of Chihiro's hands right as Dino-Rang's boomerangs flew off as well! The magic sphere dashed forward and phased straight through boomerangs, which in turn contaminated them with its cyan light. The boomerangs shone even brighter as they spun in place, and enlarged themselves to maybe ten times their prior size as they razed through the crowd of soldiers! Once the enemies fell to their backs, the boomerangs stopped in their tracks and flopped right onto the soldiers, just to be certain.

"Alright!"

Chihiro raced up to everybody and gave them high-fives, then turned her attention to the broken pile that was once Flynn's balloon.

Flynn coughed as he pulled Diggs out of the wreckage, but stopped and stood up himself. With a wince he looked back at his balloon, bowed his head and put his hand over his heart. "You had a good run, Balloony," Flynn said with an uncharacteristically somber tone, "Papa's proud of you."

Diggs frowned as well as he turned his attention back to Chihiro. "This is as far as I can take you, I'm afraid. I haven't been here in months, ya see. Everything else's new as spring to me!" Diggs informed as he clasped his clawed hands tight. "The rest of the place is yours to explore."

"'Kay!" Chihiro shouted as she hopped off and turned her attention back to the others. "C'mon guys, we've gotta find the Eternal Earth Source!"

"One problem with that, Chi," Dino-Rang said as he pointed a claw aside, "I kinda need my boomerangs back."

Chihiro cast a glance in that direction, and blushed a tomato red blush as she found that Dino-Rang's boomerangs were indeed, still oversized and far too big to carry. "I'll take care of that." Chihiro snapped her fingers, and the boomerangs radiated with a cyan glow then shrunk back right to their normal size!

Chihiro frowned and hopped off to the gate as Dino-Rang reclaimed his boomerangs. A cursory glance showed that it had no visible locks or keys. Rather, it only had gigantic twin towers with bounce pads at their feet rather than a door or stairs. So, Chihiro skipped over to the bounce pad and jumped right onto its squishy surface! She cheered shot up into the skies, and fell down on its surface to find a statue with a floating eyeball hovered above it and an identical one on the tower across.

"Wait, I recognize these things!" Chihiro exclaimed before she turned around and looked down. "Hey guys, I have an idea!" As Chihiro waved down at Terrafin, Bash, and Dino-Rang, they all looked back up at her. "Get on top of that other tower!"

The trio looked at each other and shrugged as they walked over to the other tower. They bounced onto its very top, and their eyes fixed onto the second floating eye statue before them.

"On the count of three, blow these things up!" Chihiro turned back to the statue near her and readied her magic. "One, two… Three!"

The sound of intense crashing rang as both statues shattered to bits, and the gate rumbled before it swiftly receded int the earth!

"Quick, before it rises!"

Chihiro teleported down to the open gate and ran through, but as she ran, she couldn't help but get the feeling that she was being watched! Chihiro turned around and frowned, yet all she saw was Terrafin, Bash and Dino-Rang as they ran behind her. Huh, must have been imagining things. So, she ran forwards through the path, and the wind blew akin to faint cackling as she ran.

§

Terrafin hummed some kind of song that nobody was really sure actually was a song as they passed through the stony gates and over the hills. The slightly more modern walls and towers and strongholds left them behind long ago, and the area from here on out seemed a bit more untamed. There were little signs of civilization, only vast plains, grassy cliffs and…

"Swamps?" Chihiro said as she tilted her head.

Sure enough, right in front of them were swamps! Well, oddly clean swamps, if they were swamps; the water that made up the area was a pristine aqua color and sparkled against the early afternoon light, lacked most signs of contamination, and even had a few cute fish that swam in its depths! Islands dotted the swamp waters like flecks of ink from a leaky pen, and they all connected with simple wood and rope bridges that seemed kind of unstable. Hopefully they were stronger than they looked. Nevertheless, they all formed a pretty straightforward path towards a larger peninsula filled with grass and flowers, and unless they liked swimming, those islands were their only option of travel.

Chihiro smiled as she bolted down and jumped onto the bridge that lead to the first island. She swung against the bridge and watched as it swung in tandem with her rhythm, but thankfully, didn't snap!

"The bridge should be safe, guys!" Chihiro proclaimed as she beckoned for the others to join her, "Come on!"

Terrafin and Dino-Rang joined her without hesitation, but Bash cringed and glanced from side to side before he warily tip-toed over to the bridge.

Chihiro tilted her head and frowned as Bash quickly passed her by, as if he REALLY did not want to be on that bridge right now. "Bash, is something wrong?"

Chihiro shrugged then followed him onto the first island, hopped onto the next bridge, and the island that followed. It was oddly peaceful as they walked; there was not a villain or bird or even an annoying chompy or two in sight. It was just them and the vast, vast swamps! Chihiro paused and breathed in the fresh air, but something bumped into her and knocked her over!

"Oh, whoops!" Bash exclaimed as he made a chuckle and nudged Chihiro's head. "Didn't see you there, Chi!"

As Bash helped Chihiro up, Chihiro frowned and looked ahead. For some reason, the bridge ahead was blocked off by a barricades of rattling wooden barrels. Wait, hold on a second—rattling wooden barrels? Chihiro's hands flared with magic as she trailed over to the barrels and tapped them. If there was one thing she had learned from her time in Skylands insofar, it was that rattling wooden barrels were never to be trusted, for nine times out of ten they usually contained…

"CHOMPIES!" Chihiro exclaimed as the barrels exploded and she jumped back!

Sure enough, seated within the wreckage that was once the barrels were none other than a collection of bright green chompies! There had to have been a little under a hundred of them!

"Geez, where does Kaos keep getting all these chompies, anyways?" Chihiro made a scoff and rested her brightly-glowing hands on her hips. "Do they just grow like weeds or something?" Chihiro tapped a finger against her chin. "Actually, I wouldn't be too surprised if that was the case…"

Chihiro screamed as a Chompy rocketed forward and narrowly grazed her shoulder!

"Less talking, more fighting!" Terrafin exclaimed as he dove into the earth!

His fin was the only thing visible as Terrafin sliced through the earth, but soon he leaped from its loamy blanket with a punch! Terrafin smirked as the chompies soared off of the island and helplessly ploppled into the swamp waters, and he landed back on his feet as he punched through the rest of the crowd. But as he punched away, a gigantic leak sprung in the center of the island and spewed swamp water everywhere!

"Whoops."

Terrafin grunted as water splashed him, wiped off his head. and grimaced. The leak slowly grew bigger and bigger as the sound of cracking split! A look down showed that the island itself slowly started to split at the seams, complete with small bits drifting off of the whole!

"Crap!" Chihiro exclaimed as she rubbed her hands together, and thrust them forward to summon a gigantic cork made entirely of magic! Chihiro jumped up, slammed the cork into the leak then watched as the damage came to a trickle. "Close one." Chihiro wiped sweat from her brow and shot a look at the others, "Alright, that should take care of things. Just nobody makes any more holes in the island or we'll go sinking like the Titanic!"

"What's a Titanic?" Bash asked as he tilted his head.

"Earth thing, I'll explain later!" Chihiro teleported out the way of a flight of chompies, and blasted the chompies in the back with a magic sphere.

Bash shrugged and yowled out as a chompy latched onto his tail. He growled and slammed his tail against the earth, and the chompy flew into the lake! He smiled as it sank into the deep, but ducked his head as several more chompies soared over it. Aside from him, Terrafin punched away chompies like they were no more than leafy punching bags—and yet, these chompies were a little more stubborn than their predecessors. These ones seemed to get up no matter how many times you punched them down!

A familiar pair of wooden boomerangs grazed through the crowds of chompies and tried to blow them away, but, it was no use! The chompies just bit onto the boomerangs! The boomerangs returned to Dino-Rang soon after, who only screamed and stumbled about as the chompies latched onto his muzzle.

"Let go, ya little—AUGH!" Dino-Rang yowled in pain as he yanked one stubborn chompy off of his face and tossed it into the lake, only for about five more to jump onto him!

"Looks like they could use some help," Bash remarked as he lifted up his front legs, "and I've got just the thing!"

Bash stomped onto the ground and sent an earth-shattering quake moving through the entire island they fought on! If that wasn't enough to concern, perhaps the gigantic stone statues the shot up from the ground and tossed all the particularly stubborn chompies right into the deep were! Bash smiled quite contently while the stone statues receded back into the unknown, but his eyes shot wide open as everyone heard a hiss, followed by a second, a third, a fifth… Soon enough, that sound of rushing water became the only noise as gigantic holes eclipsed the island! Water coated the grassy isle in a slimy, muddy coat while the island itself slowly creaked as if it was ready to keel over!

"Well, so much for not sinking like the Titanic," Chihiro remarked before she shook her head.

Chihiro bolted onto the bridge and raced towards the next island, fell to her knees, and caught her breath. Thundering footsteps pounded across the bridge as she held her heart! Chihiro looked up to see Terrafin, Dino-Rang and Bash raced behind her in pursuit, but a closer look showed that Bash was quite frantic! His breath was heavier than the others as his eyes kept going back to the sinking island and he practically bowled over the others as he ran! It was like he was too scared to even think straight! As Terrafin and Dino-Rang caught up and leaped onto the island, Bash got ready to jump over and join them, but as he got ready to leap, the bridge's rope started to furrow and it snapped completely!

"Whoa, whoa!" Bash exclaimed as he scrambled up the broken bridge. He tried his best, but his best wasn't enough. Before he could even finish, the bridge dropped into the deep blue with Bash still on it!

"Bash!" Terrafin, Chihiro and Dino-Rang exclaimed at once.

Ever quick to react, Chihiro and Terrafin both dove into the swamps and started swimming. Though the water clouded their vision, Bash was still clearly visible as he sunk into the depths while bubbles flew from his muzzle. He flailed his legs and tail as he clearly tried to swim, but he was far too heavy—all he could do was sink like a stone!

Chihiro gritted her teeth as she and Terrafin darted forward, but Bash sank far too fast for them to catch up! Even at full speed, they were still too far to get him! So, Chihiro paused and narrowed her eyebrows before she clapped her hands. As they flared with cyan light that shone quite brilliantly against the deep blues, she clasped Terrafin's hand and the blue light spread to their entire bodies! Terrafin dashed back down as Chihiro let go of his hand, and his speed was now five times faster than before! The waters grew darker as he disappeared under their cover, but soon he swam back up with Bash over his shoulder! Chihiro winced as Bash shuddered, and she supported Bash with her own grasp as they swam back up.

Meanwhile, on the surface, Dino-Rang frowned and clutched the edge of the island, his eyes trained on the swamp waters. The waters gurgled, and he leaned back as water erupted from the swamp! While the water cascaded down, Bash shot out of the fountain and rolled onto the dry-ish land! Bash hacked and coughed out clear swamp water as Chihiro and Terrafin climbed up onto the island and shook themselves off, all with frowns of concern on their faces.

"You alright, Bash?" Terrafin asked as he slammed a hand against Bash's back while Bash hacked out a strand of seaweed.

"Yeah, I'm, I'm," Bash wheezed as he cleared his throat. "I'm fine. Being made of rock is good for a lot of things, but swimming isn't one of them. I just end up sinking like a rock."

"Thank goodness!" Chihiro exclaimed as she slammed forward and hugged Bash tight. "You really had me worried there!"

Bash chuckled as he coughed out the last of the water, and gently nuzzled Chihiro's head. For all his faults, Bash was a surprisingly resilient type. Not many people would come out of nearly drowning and still feel willing to make awful puns about their near-death experience. Chihiro smiled as she let go of Bash, shook off her soaked head, and scattered water droplets everywhere.

"If that's been taken care of, let's get going!"

The four of them passed through the next couple bridges with odd peace, for there was not a single surprise in sight—just islands and bridges and more islands and bridges. Well, and the faint rumbling that resonated from the horizon ever so often.

"Do you guys hear that?" Bash asked as he nudged Terrafin's broad shoulder.

"Yeah, now that you mention it," Terrafin remarked, "Think it's a quake?"

"An earthquake? In a swamp?" Chihiro added as she turned around. "Is that even possible?"

"Aye, mates!" Dino-Rang exclaimed as he pointed ahead, "Look over there!"

They all followed Dino-Rang’s gaze and frowned. There over the horizon, something black and round rolled further and further, and finally, it leaped off of a cliff and slammed straight into the ground! It left a notable crater in the earth and kicked dust up everywhere! Rocky laughter resounded as everyone coughed.

When the dust cleared, everyone looked up and gasped! That object was no object—it was actually a person! Well, a dragon, actually, but that a living being nonetheless. This dragon looked completely identical to Bash, save for the fact that its eyes were a blank, milky white and its scales were a deep purple and pulsated with the occasional vein of brown magic.

"I don't understand why the others couldn't just distract you oafs themselves," the dragon said with a smirk, "but we'll let bygones be bygones."

"Great, more of Kaos's cronies," Chihiro scoffed as she set her fists alight. "Hope you're ready to lose!"

While the others put up their arms and got ready to fight, the Bash clone said no words. Instead, it smirked and raised its tail to the skies.

"Lose? The Evil Rock Dragon?" the Evil Rock Dragon echoed with a scoff, "I don't think so!" With that said, the Evil Rock Dragon slamming its tail against the island's surface. "Hope you brought your pillows," The Evil Rock Dragon shouted as it continued to slam its tail against the island. "Because you're sleeping with the fishes!"

With another slam of its tail, the Evil Rock Dragon sent a fissure through the entire island that shook Chihiro, Terrafin, Bash, and Dino-Rang to their very cores! It was so great, so intense, that they could barely stand as the fissures ripped through the island!

Chihiro lifted up her head, grunted and grabbed hold of the ground. With a quick closing of her eyes, she disappeared and reappeared just inches away from where the Evil Rock Dragon stood!

"That's enough of that, you walking cinder block!" Chihiro exclaimed as she wrapped herself tight around its tail, only for it to fling her right off!

Chihiro screamed as she hurtled through the air, but grunted as Terrafin leaped up and caught her. "Nice catch!" Chihiro chirped as she gave Terrafin a thumbs up.

Terrafin smirked as he dropped back onto the island, and both of them fell flat on their faces as the fissures grew more intense. Despite the intensity, Chihiro held out her hand and shot out a bubble made of magic, but the bubble immediately popped due to the intense vibrations!

Chihiro groaned before she fell to her knees once more. "Aww, c'mon!"

Terrafin growled between his fangs as he tried to pull himself to the feet, but it seems like the quakes were too great even for him; he could barely stand for a second before he fell to his knees once more!

Dino-Rang, meanwhile, grabbed his boomerangs and threw them right at the Evil Rock Dragon! Despite all the quakes and chaos, the boomerangs soared right at the Rock Dragon. But, they still couldn't make contact, for a conveniently-timed boulder deflected them back at Dino-Rang and conked him in the head! Dino-Rang groaned and shook his head, reclaimed his boomerangs, and shot them again.

Ever diligent, Chihiro followed as she shot off sphere after magic sphere at the Evil Rock Dragon, but even their combined battalion of attacks did little in the way of damage! Everything they threw was either deflected away by island debris or stopped mid-transit by the intense quakes!

Terrafin grunted as he dug his claws into the ground, but looked behind as a lurching sound croaked out. "Uh, guys," Terrafin shouted as water splashed his feet. "You might wanna hurry this up, or we'll be sharkbait!"

Chihiro and Dino-Rang both looked down to the island and grimaced, because sure enough, Terrafin was right! Slowly but surely, the cracks in the island leaked swamp water onto its surface, and worse yet, it accumulated quite fast. If something wasn't done soon, it would probably completely sink any time now!

"Crap!" Chihiro exclaimed as she scrambled to avoid the pooling water underneath her.

Bash grunted as he took a step further, and another one, and a third, with his movements surprisingly fast in light of all the intense vibrations! He must have noticed this as well, judging by the look of awe in his eyes as he looked down at his feet.

"Guys, go on ahead!" Bash exclaimed as he looked back at the others. "I'll take care of this rockhead!"

"You sure, Bash?" Chihiro asked as she looked up at Bash, a slight frown and knitted eyebrows on her face.

Bash only nodded as he curled up into a ball, rolled forward and slammed straight into the Evil Rock Dragon! It was so sudden that the Evil Rock Dragon didn't see Bash coming and flew right onto the bridge!

"Ughhhh…" the Evil Rock Dragon mumbled as it stumbled to its feet. "Did someone get the number on that balloon?"

Bash rammed right into the Evil Rock Dragon once more, which sent it flying back onto the island! This time, however, it was faster to recover! It merely shook its head, curled up and smacked Bash sideways!

Chihiro, Terrafin and Dino-Rang all watched this for mere moments, but nodded to each other and ran across the bridge. Once they were safely stationed on the other decidedly-not-waterlogged side, they peered across to Bash and the Evil Rock Dragon's brawl. The sinking island tipped left and right as the two of them swerved all around, chased each other, and smacked each other silly! It kind of looked like a rocky game of pinball, to be honest.

"What do you think you're doing?" the Evil Rock Dragon exclaimed as it ground against Bash.

"Stopping you, that's what!" Bash shouted back as he dug further against the Evil Rock Dragon.

The Evil Rock Dragon spun even further into Bash. "Stop me? Hah! You'll only end up sinking into the deep!"

As the Evil Rock Dragon spun faster, the cracking sound underneath grew more intense while the cracks themselves grew larger and wetter! Bash grimaced as he cast a glance down at the ground below, but spun out the way and unfurled himself.

"I gotta, finish this up," Bash panted as he looked towards the Evil Rock Dragon, "but how?"

Bash contemplated for a few seconds as a loud rumbling echoed around the isle—the sound of the Evil Rock Dragon barreling towards him! Bash jumped out of the way as the Evil Rock Dragon bowled forward. The Evil Rock Dragon screeched to a stop as it hit the island's watery edge, unfurled itself and panted for a few moments. Its breath recovered, it glared down Bash and rolled towards him once more! This time, Bash was more than prepared! As it grew close enough to him, he smacked it full-force with his tail and sent it soaring!

"I'll be backkkkkkkkkkkkk!" The Evil Rock Dragon exclaimed as it flew into the distance.

Bash smiled for a few moments as the Evil Rock Dragon disappear over the horizon, but stumbled backwards as the island started to tip over! He scrambled his way up to the island's tip with his eyes small and his teeth clenched. If it was possible for him, surely he would've been sweating buckets by now.

While he finally gripped onto the top of the island, the others raced across the bridge and leaned other in order to grab him, for the island lurched backwards! They all screamed as they dug their fingers into the island and latched on as tight as they could! Bash did the same as well, but his grip slipped and sent him tumbling backwards! Just as Bash closed his eyes and likely braced for the end, he completely stopped falling! Bash uttered out in confusion as he looked up and smiled wide!

"Dino-Rang!" Bash called as his eyes glittered.

"C'mon, just a little further!" Dino-Rang grunted as he pulled Bash up the island.

However, Bash was quite heavy, so heavy that even Dino-Rang started to lose his grip! Dino-Rang grunted as he kept trying to pull Bash up, but toppled over and sent them both falling! Luckily for them, Terrafin was quick to react! He slid down as he grabbed Dino-Rang's hand tight, and smiled as Chihiro grabbed onto his own.

"Hang on guys," Chihiro panted as she looked over her shoulder. "This is gonna be one heck of a riiiIIIIDDDDDDDDDDEEEEEEEEEE—"

Right as Chihiro spoke, the island lurched over and flopped down onto the lake with a gigantic SPLASH that coated the surroundings in swamp water! As the island sunk further and further into the depths of the swamp, a small glimmer of light manifested on the peninsula. That glimmer of light grew brighter and brighter by the second, until it was about the size of a small boulder and slowly shaped itself into some kind of vague shape. Finally, the light faded to reveal that Chihiro, Terrafin, Bash and Dino-Rang had teleported onto the peninsula's grounds!

"Heh, hah," Chihiro panted as she wiped sweat from her brow and forced a weak smile. "Is, is everybody alright? Say 'aye' if you're alive!"

The other three stumbled in a dizzy haze and collapsed into a pile, but nevertheless, they still all gave Chihiro thumbs up. "Aye," responded their three tired voices in between caught breaths.

Everybody regained their balance as they jumped to their feet, and slowly broke in smiles and laughter. Chihiro gave them a slightly confused glance at first, tiny frown and raised eyebrows and all. But finally, she herself broke into laughter and wrapped the other three in a tight hug.

"Man, I really cut that one close!" Chihiro laughed as she let go and pointed towards the lake. "Whatever, something tells me rocky boy over there's gonna be out of our hair for a while."

They all smiled, nodded and made their way to the peninsula's open pathway.