The Desert is Cold in the Dark [Dark Data]

[Dr. McNinja]

Ogong could not lift his jaw from the ground. Somerled has cast some sort of storm spell, but it was one that literally wiped out most of the enemy forces and even knocked down two of the ginormous statues.

"How did you DO that?!"

Somerled kept cackling, sticking his tongue out to taste the rain. Jim shifted his rifle uncomfortably.

"Right, then. We need to do get in that-"

CRASH

Somerled stopped chuckling and looked up to see the statues still up and at it. Ogong groaned.

"Now what?"

"We take care of those assholes," Jim grumbled.

Ogong looked expectantly at Somerled, who shrugged.

"I'm not making another one, monkey boy."

"Figured you'd say that."

Ogong cracked his neck, twirling Yeo-Ee-Pil with one hand. He stretched his arms before sprinting off, shouting behind him, "Take the other one!"

Before his teammates could figure out what he meant, Ogong was already smacking at the heels of one of the statues. His staff was unusually quiet, just grunting at the pain of being smacked against stone. This usually meant this fight was going to be rougher than usual. Not like Ogong couldn't tell. This statue was freaking huge. There was only one way to take it down, and that was by bringing it low. For some reason, every artificial humanoid thing Ogong ever saw had a weak spot somewhere near the head. Hopefully these statues were no different.

As Ogong scanned the statue in a panic for a weak spot, he noticed that the entire surface of the statue was covered in deeply engraved heiroglyphics and decorative ridges. It was like it was meant to be climbed. And, fortunately, the world's best climbing animal was in the Liberators' company.

The statue seemed entirely unbothered by Ogong's efforts. It reached down surprisingly quickly - Ogong barely cartwheeled backwards to dodge a left-handed scooping assault. The monkey then jumped upwards as high as he could, just barely reaching the giant's ascending hand. Using his staff, he hooked himself onto one of the ridges and hoisted himself upwards into the palm, rolling as he landed. The statue emitted the noise of stone grinding stone, as if it was growling. Surprisingly quickly, the fingers closed in on the monkey as the statue tried to clench him. Ogong had expected this, but did not anticipate the speed of the statue. He meant to jump out of the way, but it appeared to be a lost cause. Instead, he raised his staff skyward and set one end in the palm, positioning himself to be under the middle finger. The finger, instead of squashing the monkey into simian jelly, pricked itself on the relatively toothpick-sized weapon. The statue growled again, shaking his hand in slight pain. The monkey barely held on to the index finger, screaming the entire time and constantly feeling his fingers slip from the wet stone.

When the giant stopped, the monkey let out a sigh of relief before continuing to climb. He was now jumping from handle to handle, reaching the middle of the statue's forearm in a matter of seconds. The statue, realizing what was happening, reached with his right hand to slap the monkey into jelly. Ogong wanted to jump out of the way again, but the next ridge was just barely too high for him to reach. So he once more protruded his staff perpendicularly to the arm, essentially stinging the giant once more.

The statue roared in frustration. If it felt pain, it wasn't feeling any - but clearly it felt anger. It must have felt similar to a hostile horsefly that just didn't leave you alone. And this time, Yeo-Ee-Pil was embedded into the forearm, muffling the staff's grunts. Ogong used it as a monkey bar, swinging his body back and forth to build momentum. When he jumped up, the statue had once more slapped the staff, with the monkey safely out of the way this time.

"Yeo-Ee-Pil!" Ogong cried out. The staff jolted out of the stonework and flung into Ogong's extended hand.

"Please tell me we're there now," the staff whined.

"That's my line," Ogong snapped.

Brow furrowed in concentration, Ogong continued to latch onto various handholds. It was rough climbing, especially in the upper arm, where the masons had inconsiderately not carved any writing whatsoever. Ogong clenched the edge of the statue's elbow pad, eyes squinting to keep out the rain. It was at this moment the statue decided to shake its body furiously. Ogong whimpered as he realized what was happening. He smashed Yeo-Ee-Pil into the crack between the arm and the elbow and held on for dear life.

Ogong couldn't even see what was happening back on the ground, but he could hear Jim's weapon cracking rapidly. He tried to peek at the other statue, wondering how his teammates were faring. He didn't have much time to assess their situation, as he heard the other shoulder start grinding again. Knowing the statue was once more reaching to slap Ogong away, Ogong sputtered the rainwater from his mouth and looked for a way up. He hopped, narrowly dodging the right hand.

The monkey tried to think of ways to get the statue to lift its hands to its head. If a tiny little monkey-thing was climbing him, what would he do? Slap it away, keep it from his clothes... Unfortunately, all of his experiences with tiny things climbing his body ended with the tiny things flying away or being squashed. Ogong especially hated those insect pests when they were on his neck. It was so difficult to slap something on the-

"That's it!" Ogong laughed, "Yeo-Ee-Pil, get ready to cast!"

"Which one?" the staff replied.

"Hwa!"

The monkey jumped up once again, dodging the gigantic stone hand once more. At this point, the statue was not even drawing the hand back, focusing solely on slapping Ogong. The monkey realized this could also be used to his advantage.

"Taewuhra! HWA!"

A fireball appeared in Ogong's palm, with the help of Yeo-Ee-Pil's arcane energy. He spun mid-air, chucking the fireball at the statue's neck. Ogong landed on the back of the statue's right hand, hoping it landed and realizing that if the hand was to move away he'd have to start climbing all over again. Fortunately, the fireball landed, singing the base of the statue's neck and blackening it. The statue must have felt a tiny sting. It lifted itsright hand directly to where the fireball landed, growling in response. The statue had unwittingly lifted Ogong to its head. But Ogong was not ready for the event. When the statue's hand stopped moving, Ogong launched upwards, screaming and flailing.

At the top of the jump, Ogong regained composure and spun the staff.

"Nahwara! SOO!"

The staff glowed and the Chinese character for "hand" appeared in glowing brushstrokes above Ogong's head. The character pulsed light and a giant arcane circle appeared behind the monkey, following him as he fell. An enormous grey hand shot upwards. It must have been quite the sight to see a giant hand appear out of nowhere that high up. The statue was bewildered, for sure. The fingers stretched outwards and upwards just as Ogong's did. Ogong twisted his body, moving closer to the statue's face.

"High five!" Ogong chirped.

Before the statue could react, Ogong thrusted forward with his arm, his hand clenching something invisible. The grey hand followed suit, grabbing onto the statue's blank face. The statue roared, this time in terror. Ogong then snapped his wrist forward. When the grey hand followed suit, it pushed the statue's head backwards and downwards, exposing the statue's neck. Furthermore, it pushed the statue backwards, as Ogong had just pushed the statue's face very hard.

The grey hand faded, its purpose complete. The statue was now beginning to fall backwards. Ogong, still falling, spun again and narrowed his body to fall faster. Nearing the statue's exposed neck, he swung Yeo-Ee-Pil as hard as he could at the stone column. The impact left cracks in the neck, stifling the next roar as the statue collapsed backwards.

The statue landed in a cloud of dust, which quickly dissipated, heavy with water. Ogong lifted himself from the shattered stone, lifting his hands high into the air.

"WHOOOOOOO!" the monkey cheered.

The other statue, noticing his fallen comrade, roared loudly in response and started reaching for Ogong.

"Oh come on."

1460 words.
Used Signature Move - Hand, "Soo".
One statue down!