Blazermate didn't get much in the way of zombies as they passed through this weird lower part of the cavern, many of hte others not liking her suggestion. She could only shrug, since she was half kidding either way. Still, she went with the others, riding atop Bowser like she usually did.

As they got in deeper, the fog swirled around them as Master Hand appeared from it, giving everyone a new death challenge. "Ugh, not this guy again!" Blazermate said as Master Hand explained the challenge. A speed robattle, and one that didn't give them much time at all. Seeing that, Blazermate got ready, healing and overhealing everyone to gain ubercharge as Bowser chose a path for the medabot.

And this path lead to a single encounter with someone who was... quite the ugly lady. An ugly lady with a conch and a pretty song in quite the dank cavern. Seeing as there was a time limit on this whole thing, Blazermate had prepared for this situation and seeing what Link could do, Blazermate put her healing beam on the hero and said. "Go get her champ! We don't have much time!" as she kritzed Link and summoned Dell to start making his base.

While Bowser and Jr got themselves some new minions Rika and Kamek both ended up with a sort of intrinsic increase in their worth as the spectral currency claimed from the fallen spirits attached itself to them.

”How strange” Kamek commented as he looked down at himself in a failed attempt to see a physical manifestation the wealth he had gained. Rika meanwhile was quite enamored with the situation saying “neat. I’ve never had my own money before” only to then hesitantly ask Kamek “it, it is mine right?”

”Of course” the mage replied without a second thought.

“Great! I am going to buy so many sweets when we get out of this place” she said, quite delighted at the prospect. The mage softly laughed good naturedly at this childish desire before telling her that ”I’m sure you’ll be able to afford plenty, just do be careful about your teeth” before quietly sorting his new magical teacup, this one far more useful than the mug he had found in the Maw as it seemed to be making him feel more invigorated merely by holding it. He added the unclaimed hook to this, finding that it too had similar passive qualities which he could make use off

The fish meat meanwhile lasted all of a minute before being eaten by Bowser as a snack, which was how they found out that the king could apparently now restore his physical form by eating as a few minor scrapes closed up upon consuming the fishy morsel.

---

Down in the caves below the island, the Troop’s scouting did not trigger anything of concern which gave them some false confidence as they all passed on getting footsie with the slugs and instead just went flying over them. Kamek and Jr could do this by default, of course, while Bowser summoned his trowlon striker Carrie to hover board over the sluggy sea and Rika pawned a ride off Kamek’s toadies, who hoisted her by her shoulders and. After getting them to simply follow the lead of her scout planes, which she could dedicate mentally, she found she could get a fair bit of aerial maneuverability out of the deal, which was neat.

What was not neat was the third (for Bowser and a few others) appearance of the, or a, master hand, who showed up to once again block their way to the area’s boss. The Troop were among those who immediately launched into trying to blast the glove to pieces, with Rika just following the lead of three who were in the know without a second thought.

Kamek stopped trying to kill the clearly incurable glove first out of all of them, before saying, and then shouting, ”Sire, I dont think it's working. Sire? SIRE!” to get the one of them who didn't stop wasting energy on their accord to also hold fire.

”Huh what?” Bowser stopped to ask, and in so doing gave the ting time to actually speak and lay out its plan.

“Curse? There’s a curse?” Rika said half way through, picking up on something weird in its words that the rest of the Troop couldn’t see due to their inherent animosity towards the hand. Kamek thought it was strange too once she pointed it out, but there really wasn’t time for discussing things as the master hand laid out another challenge, and looking back at it, they all really had been challenges, and this one was a doozy. Five minutes, three challenges. Do or die.

Bowser followed his heart as soon as the count down stopped, and was hot on Princess Peach’s heels into the trial of Desire. Within they came face to face with a wretched fish thing, that seemed to the king like a combination between the angler fish murlocs and the lady like sea snails that had grown to colossal proportions. He was entirely wrong in his assessment, but that didn't really matter. It had to die.

”Forget playing around or holding back, let’s go for broke. KAMEK! Supersize me and let's end this wet witch before she can even blink her gross eyes!” Bowser commanded dramatically, only to stand there posing while nothing happened, before looking back with a confused ”Huh?

”uh, dad? I think he went the other way. After Rika?” Jr, the only Troop member who had come with him, pointed out.

”What? Why didn’t she come with us?” the king demanded to know.

The answer to that Rika herself didn't even know at first as she found herself heading the same way as Bella. Something was calling her down into the Abyss, the former foot soldier being affected by the calling command far harder than the slight tug that might have been touching the princess’s mind.

”Rika, are you alright? Wait up” Kamek called after her, following in the wake of her and the others and, as a result, coming in dead last to see the utterly unfair fight the hand had put up against them. He found Rika stumbling back in horror as Bella visibly deflated at the sight of not one but two abyssal princesses and, of all things, their apparent master, all arrayed against them. The math in Kamek’s head did not look good but whether it be bravado, bravery or foolishness Sakura did not share her allies' qualms, stepping up to fight without fear or hesitation.

Exactly like a… well, exactly what Sakura was.

”This looks to be one unfair fight
So what we need is a hero tonight!”

Kamek, no hero, hung back to take cover while chanting as both he and his green clones directed their wands towards the woman, all of them channeling a different magical boon and granting Sakura more power to back up her pride.

The short schoolgirl grew tall quite suddenly, shooting up to challenge the mighty armaments of the princess in size. Green energy burned around her wrist wraps and trainers, while her body gained a protective barrier shaped in a loose approximation of a sleeveless karate gi, the magical armor weightless except maybe for the burden of living up to the inspiration for it’s form. Finally sakura’s body seemed to glow from within as her muscles gained magical invigoration to let her push past her mortal limits.

It was power, pure and simple, and acted as heavy emphasis for Sakura’s confident words that shook Rika out of her stunned staring fear. She glanced back at Kamek who gave her a strained but encouraging nod, before turning her sights back towards the abyssal titans. The fear in her heart had not disappeared entirely, how was she supposed to stand up to those built to be her betters, but here the mage and the martial artist who had freed them where, standing against the one who’s vile grasp they had freed the ship girls from.

How could she not stand beside them in this hour.

Besides, they’d gotten through the maw. Compared to that, this was surely only the second worst thing they could face together.

“Come on! We can’t let her fight them alone!” she said to Bella, before running after their hero with Kamek’s toadies hoovering along side her and his clones swooping to and fro above, preparing to render more aid as soon as they had recharged.

@DracoLunaris@Archmage MC@Lugubrious

---

---

The only way forward was through the snail pit. The only thing that gladdened Link's heart about that was the Koopa Troop's scouting party returning unmolested and reporting that, besides the apparent unpleasantries, there were no ambush parties waiting in the wings. So, with the exception of the sting of terror that shot through his mind at Sakura's "prank," he was able to follow after Peach with no qualms.

It was a testament to Mimic's craftmanship that when he jumped over the balcony and pulled out his sailcloth there was no noticeable change in it's performance despite the foot of height and who knows how many pounds of muscle he had gained from his fusion with Tidehunter. The transformation had exceeded his every expectation, the only downside he could see being that his tunic had vanished completely. He hoped there was a way to get that back. It was cracking good armor, despite its appearance, but if he just wanted armor he had a replacement he was sure would fit him now. No, the real loss was sentimental. That uniform was one of the things that connected him back to the other Champion's, the color being something shared between all of them. No amount of steely muscles or catlike sinews could fill the hole that it left.

He glided along after Peach for a portion of the room, joined by the Troop, but on glancing down and seeing the snail women dragging themselves toward the groundwalkers below and dropped halfway across, his impact cracking one of the rotted wooden platforms flat in half and scattering a few corpse while maggots, and joined them on their trudge. The slug women didn't prove dangerous enough to even contend with, and the new variety of fish man that tended to this place for some unspeakable reason didn't see fit to trouble them as they passed. One waved it's tadpole filed staff menacingly at him as he stopped to take a picture, but that was the extent of their open hostility.

So it was a nursery, then.

That might have made him feel bad when the wooden platforms came to an end and they were striding across a carpet of maggots if they weren't also apparently using the maggots as kindling.

As they approached the wall of fog something began to emerge from the sea of sticky white stuff at their feet. At first he thought himself a fool, for of course the ambush could come from underneath. At first he mistook the enemy for four, slimy white wriggling creatures pushing heir way up to defend the nest. As it fully clawed its way out he felt his blood run cold. His mind flashed back to the day this had all begun, back to the cliff and the army that had been arrayed against them. The creature, eh knew, that had made him a game piece in a twisted challenge. What was it that Marth had said? They would each need to defeat at least ten? Well, the only thing that stopped Link from traying to get his first was the hail of ranged attacks sent at the thing by others who had the same idea.

He stopped short, sword in hand and Dark Iron Chestplate hastily equipped, and watched with wretched frustration as the barrage of attacks was stopped by some kind of barrier. AS the last of them petered out he kept it in hand, but lowered. No point breaking his weapons against something like that. Besides, the hand behaved as Link had expected. Instead of engaging with the group it set up a game. A game of death, but a game all the same. As he looked down at timer carved onto his hand he felt a wave of nausea rush over him. Lose and everyone dies. Win and everyone lives. Simple rules. Fair rules. Rules he had no choice but hope and pray the hand decided to honor.

Some people were taking this turn of events harder than others. As the hand counted down Ms. Fortune turned to them looking for some explanation. All Link could do was growl out, "It's from the cliff!" Then Peach and the beginning of the game cut him off. She took charge immediately, hurrying them down the path before picking one herself. Bowser dutifully followed after her, Junior and Blazermate running after him. Link took one last look around the group, acutely aware that this could be the last time he ever saw any of their faces. Then he steeled himself and charged after his fellow Smash Brothers.

As they arrived in the cavern Link joined Peach in searching for whatever adversary the hand had prepared for them and hoping that it was something horrible. He didn't want to battle someone in the same position he had been put in, forced against their will into being a pawn of the hand, but the trembling of his brain was telling him that if it was between some stranger and them he would choose them. The Hand would get it's spirit.

Luckily their opponent was suitable monstrous, looking for all the world as though it could be the mother of the fish monsters that stalked this island. Bowser ordered his court mage to supersize him, but Kamek wasn't here. In this moment of inaction, Blazermate chose to put her beam on Link. He could feel himself being filled to the brim with energy, and then felt that energy explode. It was like lightning was shooting through his veins, every fiber of his new muscles crackling with power. At her command he charged forward as the creature began to fill the cavern with song. In his hands was the Ebony Battle Axe, even lighter in his hands than he had initially suspected. As he closed to within striking distance he spun once, the blade cleaving through the air in a wide arc before he used the momentum to bring the blade up, then down in an overhead chop.

It was hasty, but they didn't have the time to make a plan. He hoped the others were watching, because whatever tricks this monstrosity possessed would doubtlessly be used on him first. That was fine. He had a feeling he could take it. They could come up with a strategy after they saw how it dealt with him.

Look at them… fighting like they didn’t just escape from a big, scary nightmare ship… (You’re welcome for that, by the way.) As if this trip hasn’t been long enough already! Couldn’t we just skip this part? Don’t they want to get home?!

While her comrades eagerly entertained the interruption, seeing it as a welcomed excuse to let out their frustrations pent up from a horrifying voyage of powerlessness, Hat Kid thought to herself about the situation overall, and began more consciously considering her feelings on it as she watched her allies have their thinly disguised fun with a fight she probably should have been helping them with. She just… watched, all but paralyzed at first into brooding inaction, then before she knew it she was sat cross-legged at the edge of the well that she knew would take them to their target destination, cheek in palm as if bored; frustrated rather. Not in the same sense that she was looking for something to take it out on like some of her teammates were. Rather, she started to ask herself: What was she even doing with these people?

While she had come to their timely aid on the Maw, the experience as a whole put things in perspective for her, if only for a moment, and leading only to questions. Questions that mostly began simply with ‘why’. Like, why did they need her help at all if she managed her entire end of the voyage on her own, as she had with all things before it? And in that case, why did she need their help? Was theirs just a partnership of convenience simply for the sake of dogpiling the World’s rulers into oblivion, which she was quite literally a very small part of? Why did she go back for them considering she would likely never have ended up on that vessel if she hadn’t tagged along with them to begin with, instead of deciding for herself where she would rather go?! But most of all, why did this suddenly matter to her?

So lost was she in her melancholic musings that she hadn’t noticed the conjoined, chimeric crawling its way up and out of the well until it just about brushed past her, startling her out of her stupor to stumble from the well’s edge and rear-first onto the rain sodden soil. Luckily, it didn’t seem to notice or pay her any immediate attention versus the likes of her companions, nor did any of them seem to notice her embarrassing pratfall or catch her in the dejected slump that led up to it. She might have sooner spotted the creature coming—perhaps before it arrived, thanks to her Lens—had she been paying attention to the situation before her and saving her questions for later. Consequently, to behold such abominations of the like came more harshly as affront to the senses, her perception of them now marginally more vivid than before; a curse of knowledge and sight one might say.



Thankfully, that particular monster made itself someone else’s to take care of. Elsewhere on the battlefield, her thus far absent support was needed. Her’s, specifically, it seemed, for the now oversized Witcher was struggling with, of all things, a small, agile pest that might have troubled him less prior to his transformation. Taking the hint to answer the mostly coincidental call for her skill set, she got to her feet, ‘wiped’ her cheerful facade back on her face, and lept into action, making herself useful just in time for the encounter to wrap up…

---

Now that their collective attention was free, the party could heed the child as she directed them. In fairness to them, even unaccosted, she wasn’t exactly the most vocal type, nor of the most assertive presence. Delayed or not, what was important was that they were putting steps behind them. Steps taken along a driftwood pathway over a veritable river of what may as well have been saltwater maggots through an infested tunnel, but they found their way to the end of it quickly enough without issue to call it a plus for progress made. The end of that path marked the start of four others, with one obviously correct answer among them given away by the solid veil of unnatural fog that obscured it, as guessed by all present even before she confirmed it for them. Those among them who understood the mission they were on could feel, unmistakably, that their last great challenge at this end of the world lay just beyond.

In case there had been any doubts otherwise, the Master Hand appeared before them to stall their advance, making this, for some of them (Hat Kid included), the third instance of intervention by him. Hat Kid could only cast their disembodied nuisance an ineffectual glare in the wake of impulse attacks that fell upon him to likewise fruitless effect. What even IS his role, she wondered. Did he honestly expect to deter them with ‘challenges’ comparably paltry to what they had ultimately set their sites on? Was this all just nothing more than a game to him? Or was it, perhaps, that this was more of a test? With a pattern now definitively established by a three count occurrence, it might in time come to be a test of their patience, if nothing else.

This time, it called more for a sudden sense of urgency, as made clear by a strict timer tattooed into the skin, scales, and whatever else of every attendant member in Blue Team+. With a reverberant command, the Hand snapped out of space, and the countdown to death had begun for all of them. In tow with Nadia and Geralt, Hat Kid Sprinted through the second path, bounding over the water and Hookshotting in, releasing her line to slingshot onto the central platform and rolling to a stop, eyes up and ready to meet their chosen foe that awaited them…

The passage of many sets of feet quickly turned the pristine powder snow, sculpted as smooth as ice cream by the wind and gently auroral in the rosy pink light of Baur’s Reach, into a mosaic of prints large and small. Everyone moved at their own pace, bounding over the drifts and through the trees, up slippery inclines and stony outcrops. Rather than a straightforward forested slope, the mountain presented the heroes with uneven terrain that formed cliffs, walls, and gaps unexpectedly, making traversal less than straightforward. The bigger members of the team encountered more resistance from the snow, but with Braum quite used to freezing climates and Big Band’s legs longer than they looked beneath his trench coat, nobody had it quite as bad as Tora. His stubby legs meant that his underbelly dragged through the snow constantly, and a set of overalls could only do so much to quell the chill. Even with the air clear and the winds mild, he ended up turning to Poppi much sooner than he expected to beg a piggy-back ride, and when faced with his big, pleading eyes the artificial blade couldn’t help but concede.

Cozy in her X-naut costume and ready for a cold-weather climb atop her trusty wolfos, Midna instantly got distracted by the nearby lanterns. Compelled by her curiosity, she took her focus off the journey for a few moments in favor of ferrying a burning branch to and fro in order to stab it into each inert stone lantern in the vicinity. Whenever she lit one, it floated off its pedestal in a wave of warmth that permeated its surroundings in an area, not so much as to restore patches of summer to a land gripped by winter, but enough to shrink the snow somewhat and thaw anything frozen in ice. Single-minded in her mission to solve the puzzle, Midna did not wait to see each lantern’s effect, but raced her shaggy stood over to the next. Only when all five stone-age radiators burned did she turn to admire her handiwork.

The lanterns’ heat freed a couple smaller ponds from ice, turning them to pools of crystal-clear glacial runoff, fresh and pure. At the bottom of one lay the unmistakable shape of a treasure chest, simple wood with rusted metal hinges and clasps, but a trove nonetheless. Inside was a paired set of daggers, one long and one short. The snow’s retreat from another lantern also laid bare a small campsite, its tent long since caved in and frozen over. A handful of books and matches lay within, alongside a can of beans. However, the warmth also thawed out a strange structure mistakable at first glance as a frozen bush or tree. Once freed, however, the Stinger Hive released its noxious gasses, and in a fit of vulgar pulsation, disgorged its venomous host. A swarm of Stingers six strong, each the size of a chimpanzee, flew out to inject their victims with shots of deleterious Mordant Dew.

“Ambush! Behind us!”

At Necronomicon’s alert the Phantom Thieves wheeled about from their attempt to climb up and around the waterfall cliff. They jolted into action, spreading out as they sized up the incoming threat before whipping out their guns. With a squint Joker made doubly sure that no allies appeared to be in the line of fire, then gave the command. “Blast ‘em!”

A fusillade of revolver, submachine gun, slingshot, and rifle rounds hurtled the Stingers’ way. The oversized bugs moved in short, fast bursts, which would have made melee combat troublesome, but at the moment left them vulnerable to saturation fire. Peacock joined and cut loose with her own revolver, shooting with her pinky extended. The salvo ended as Skull charged, sliding on his knees down the hill across the snow to deliver an up-close-and-personal shotgun blast and blow the final Stinger apart. “Haha, get wrecked!”

Of course, just a few seconds later a fresh crop of Stingers poured from the hive, demanding a more permanent solution. Those on their way to help but too late to deal with the first wave, like Tora, Poppi, and Big Band, lent a hand with the second, as well as the demolition of the hive. It took a decent amount of punishment but went down without too much issue, exploding into sticky chunks after a finale of fiery missiles from Tora’s Mech Arms. “Whew!” he said. “Tora not expect problems in snow level to be bugs and plants. Especially such easy ones, meh!”

“Don’t get complacent,” Band cautioned everyone. “This time we smoked ‘em, but next time we might not be so lucky.”

As the team moved on, Fox stopped by the monument that burned by the waterfall, from which Midna originally sourced her firebrand. “So these things can alter the temperature of their surroundings,” he mused, using an arm to shield his eyes from the ice-cold spray. With a flick of his wrist, he called forth Goemon in a splendid azure flare. “I’m curious if they work in reverse.” At his bidding his Persona cast Bufula on the lantern, and just as he expected it went dark with a pulse of cold. Instantly the pond iced over, but in an unusual turn of events the waterfall flash-froze too, becoming a jagged and uneven curtain of ice along the cliff face.

Joker gave a nod of approval. “We can use that to climb up.”

“Nice thinkin’, dude!” Skull grinned, subjecting his friend to a high five.

Using their jumping ability to dash through the air as black blurs, the thieves hopped up the frozen waterfall, one foothold at a time. Anyone with similar abilities could follow suit, and Tora though Sora certainly wanted to, Poppi reasoned that her thrusters might damage the footholds. Instead, with any spent ether easily replenished, she just boosted up there with him normally.

After another minute or so spent hiking uphill through Baur’s Reach, the group came upon a chasm, carved by a frigid river as it ran down the mountain. The other side stood a couple dozen feet higher, making an already long jump that much harder, but Band had an idea. “Need a hand over here!” he shouted, calling attention over to a redwood that sat along the top of the cliff. He deployed and delivered a Brass Knuckle to the trunk, splintering through enough wood to start the whole tree leaning closer to the edge. With a little help from any strong-bodied volunteers he could bring the thing down, and the Seekers had their bridge.

The team continued onward, climbing through the frozen forest at a diagonal angle to keep things manageable. When the trees and crags happened to open up behind them they could get a good view of how far they’d come already, with the tops of a couple fall-colored redwoods already beneath them. For now things weren’t too steep, so the terrain continued to be interesting, along with all the endemic life the heroes encountered there. Gaggles of Snorunt trudged here and there, Ovis dug for food with their hooves, white rabbits hopped about, and at one point a huge Quetzal soared way overhead. Monsters inhabited the place too, including Pendrans and Snowstorm Goobbues, so it paid to be wary. The heroes also spotted a couple camps either along or directly in their way, all populated by a crew of ornery Snowmads spoiling for a fight. Each boasted Fluffs, Tucks with spears and bows, Hootz scouts, and usually one Waldough per camp acting as leader. Nothing particularly memorable crossed the Seekers’ path until the frontrunners happened upon an unusual tree. This one, atop a snow-covered knoll that stood above the surrounding area, was leafless and brown. The fruit frozen to its branches marked it as a withered olive tree, but against it leaned an iron statue studded by arrows, and from an opening in its head peered a lone eye out from beneath the white hair of the man imprisoned within.



To bear witness to someone else weeping was a strange experience for Albedo. A behavior most commonly associated with infants and otherwise borne of intense sorrow or pain, it alarmed him onto his feet for a moment, making him fret that the trio of visitors to Treat’s chilly manor might have upset her somehow, and dealt even more damage to the wolfgirl’s already-fragile emotional state. Her words, however, made it clear that her tears came not from sadness, but from joy, which set Albedo’s heart at ease. As she continued to bawl he sat back down and relaxed, a soft smile on his face. It looked like his little group’s efforts got through to her, after all.

While the alchemist was content to remain at a distance, Frisk took a more hands-on approach to make sure that Treat truly got a sense of her new acquaintances’ care for her. Hugs were simple things, and for those to whom their dispensation came easily, they truly worked wonders. Despite the fallen child being much smaller than her, Treat rested her head on Frisk’s shoulder, squeezing tight as she exhausted her long-held tears. Nearby, Linkle scooted forward too, offering apologies that the wolfgirl quickly deemed unnecessary and a hand in fellowship that Treat unconditionally accepted. When she finally extracted herself from Frisk’s embrace, she sank down by the fire alongside her new friends, overwhelmed and a complete mess but very happy, indeed.

By that time Albedo was gone, having retraced his steps through the frigid mansion to the sled that Linkle left outside. If they planned to spend more time here, they would need more firewood, and since the rabbit-eared archeress already offered her logs as fuel for the fire the alchemist saw no harm in fetching them. Better that he leave the three to their heartfelt moment, warm in the glow of Treat’s unusual hearth, than give one of them the chance to break it up and trudge back out into the cold. As he collected the logs, Albedo’s smile persisted, although his eyes held a touch more melancholy than joy. It made him glad to see that even someone as lonely and depressed as Treat, who until moments ago seemed convinced that her life would be one devoid of love, could find happiness and companionship in the kindness of strangers. Humans were social creatures after all, whether or not they had ears, tails, or horns. No matter the distance between them, it seemed that they could come together.

So where did that leave him?

With the little logs stacked in his arms, Albedo crunched up the snow-crusted stairs and back into the Beneviento House. He spared one more idle glance at the painting that hung over the staircase with its distractingly ghoulish doll. Taken alongside the other dolls scattered both around the mansion and the path that preceded it, with their lidless eyes always staring whether from a display case or a hangman’s noose, the eerie toys lent the place an ominous air. He had hypothesized that Treat colonized this place on account of that underlying dread which led the townsfolk of Snowdin to leave it well alone, but that demanded the caveat that this place harbored no residents of its own. With all those dolls around, how alone could one really feel here? Someone as nervous as Treat must constantly be looking over her shoulder, checking to make sure that no, that one in the corner of her eye hadn’t moved, that one up on the shelf wasn’t actually looking at her. He couldn’t help but posit that the creepy atmosphere might be a contributing factor to the decline of Treat's mental wellbeing. It wasn’t like the conditions here seemed particularly liveable, either. That pointed toward a singular conclusion, and Albedo resolved to confront the others with it when he could.

After rejoining the others the alchemist put the logs into the fire. Unlike the boxes of toys and such that bore the Little Inferno logo, the wood did not spit out golden coins at any point of the combustion process. They did, however, provide a lot of warmth, enough even to reach Albedo over on the couch, and they lasted much, much longer than anything Treat had on hand. Seeing the comparison brought even more questions to mind about Little Inferno’s business practice given the sheer quantity of product that needed to be burned to actually keep warm, but since the discussion wouldn’t do much good now Albedo just made a mental note and kept quiet.

Once some time passed and there came a lull in the conversation, from which Albedo had abstained up until that point, he chimed in with his idea from earlier. “Excuse me, Treat. I must apologize for bringing this up, since I am sure that this must be a personal subject for you, but after seeing this place I could not help but to wonder. I get the impression that your residency here is an outcome borne from necessity rather than preference. While extensive and, admittedly, rather invasive tests would be necessary to confirm my suspicions, I believe that dwelling here may actually be detrimental to your condition, both mentally and physically speaking. This brings me to my question.” He averted his gaze from the wolf girl and looked around the room. “Do you like living here?”

Treat narrowed her eyes, thinking. “Well…I suppose there’s no reason to hide it. It’s honestly not great.” She shivered and inched closer to the fire. “It’s old, it’s freezing, there are cobwebs everywhere, and all the dolls…eugh. I even hear noises from the basement sometimes. But when I think about the rabbitfolk…well, compared to being around them, it’s not that bad.”

Albedo’s eyes had widened slightly. “Excuse me?”

“I know, I probably sound crazy,” Treat sighed, giving a halfhearted laugh. “But they really don’t want me around, and it’s no use trying to convince them I mean no harm. So if I’m up here, everyone’s better off.”

“That’s not what I meant,” Albedo told her, then received an odd look that prompted further clarification. “Rather, that matter is important of course, and we will address it, but what exactly do you mean by ‘noises from the basement’?”

“Oh, that!” Treat looked almost embarrassed. “Well, I mean, I’m pretty sure I’m just imagining it. Once in a while I hear thumps or groans, but when I finally went down to check, I didn’t find anything. So yeah, just in my head. That’s just how it is with old places like this, right?

Albedo shook his head. “I do not believe so, no. Maybe we should take a look for ourselves, just to be sure.” He glanced at the others. “Or, if that sounds unnecessary, we could broach the subject of finding her somewhere better to live, and making sure that she won’t be disturbed.” His gaze landed on Frisk. “You mentioned a desire to convince the rabbitfolk to mend their unkind ways, did you not?”

Leaving the ruined shack, the Cadet was already feeling significantly better. Maybe even more so than when he went into it. The battles had wound down and everyone was okay. He imagined that he could feel the warmth of Nadia's shoulder against his even through his armor and the rain. A familiar piece of home helped a lot too, as he hefted the ridiculous lance over one shoulder. It was a good weapon, if a bit cumbersome. Could he juggle it with his others? Well, he'd find out soon enough.

He was a bit too late to help out with putting that giant monster Scylla down (as he'd assumed that was the original intent), but the Cadet still made his way over towards it as it was dying. When they'd initially woken up on the island, inventory space (among other things) stopped the Cadet from scavenging the corpses on the beach, but come on - look at that thing. Now that was a monster, and it was too hard to resist at least carving a few pieces off of it. Plus he could start getting some use out of that gross book that Kamek had given him. Hopefully the old Koopa wasn't upset with him or anything. Ah well. With the red cookbook in one hand and his carving knife in the other, he went to work chunking some of it's body away. There wouldn't be time to get the bones, but while spirits were being sorted he could collect skin, scales, and smaller fins with no issue so long as it's body held out long enough before it turned to ash. It held out, and the Cadet tucked away what he could into his pouch. Link had stuck around the body and was observing, which the Cadet did not mind at all. Link also had a much larger inventory that he graciously offered to take advantage of, so between the two of them they had a decent number of materials before Scylla's body was gone.

They all regrouped at the well in the center of the area, where they were assured by Hat Kid that the path ahead was at the bottom of it. So one by one they descended, with the easy way back destroyed after Bowser's turn on it. It was just as well, since no one was about to turn back now, even though they were in yet another disgusting and decrepit place. The Cadet wasn't sure what he expected really, the entire island was probably like that. The grotto was soggy and rancid, with nets hanging everywhere like webs, but on the bright side at least they were suspended above the ground level which was filled with... slugs and leeches? Gross. Some of them down there must have already been dead, given the smell - and Blazermate's comment about raising them.

"Probably wouldn't be that easy," the Cadet replied. Not to say it wouldn't help though. They did have a skeleton with them now apparently, and he - it? - seemed pretty helpful. The Cadet peeked over the edge of the walk way, eyes drawn to the various things pointed out by the others. That wall of fog... yeah, that was definitely the way forward. Wonder if there's a walkway leading down? Thoughts about getting down were interrupted by a quick shout, which had the Cadet thinking that someone fell down - but the prank was revealed pretty quickly. Ace Cadet chuckled, glad that Sakura was feeling good enough to joke around. It just meant that the group's spirits were up.

Well, time to get to the ground and move on. The Cadet wasn't a flyer, and he wasn't sure if even the clutch claw could hold to the smooth and slick surfaces of the grotto's rocks. He didn't want to risk it getting tangled in the netting either, so directly down he went. He sloshed through the little creatures until he and the rest of the walkers caught up to the others on the mostly stable foot hold of slugs packed tightly together. It was impossible to see what was the fog, but it should be easy enough to just pass through. It it weren't for the appearance of a certain entity.

"It's that thing!" That hand that summoned all of those people to shoot at them back in the Land of Adventure, back when they met and recruited Link. Unfortunately no one's attempts to attack it were successful, leaving them frustrated and anxious. Then the hand started to 'speak,' giving them another trial. The Cadet felt a string on his hand, and a slight sinking feeling that he was starting to piece together now, but there was literally not time enough to dwell on it. This trial had a time limit, and a grave consequence for failing.

The Seekers wasted no time splitting up to tackle the individual trials at the princess' command. For the Ace Cadet, his choice in tunnels was pretty easy, in that he didn't think about it at all. He followed Ms. Fortune's back, ending up with her, Hat Kid, Geralt, and their newest recruit in a flooded cave. With his water walking the Cadet wouldn't have to stick to the raised platform, but it turned out that their enemy didn't have to stick to the water like he'd assumed, given the kind of creatures they'd already seen here. It could fly. And it summoned a handful of animals made from water, the same as itself it seemed. The Cadet judged that out of his options, the sword and shield would be most useful here. Thankfully it's enchantment was long gone already. He obeyed Geralt's call to cover his ears before the cannon fired, and then drew his own weapon ready to take the elementals on. "Okay, let's make this quick!"

@Majoras End@Lugubrious

---

Linkle was beaming as Treat almost melted with happiness. This was the way heroes ought to make people feels.

Albedo reentered the house to find Linkle encouraging her new friend to open up the snacks and try them, intently curious about what they tasted like. To Linkle's magical thinking the symbolism of these presents, which came from the heart of Snowdin itself, was abundantly clear: Treat wasn't meant to be hungry and cold and living like she was camping out.

She had been too engaged between her encouragements and asking about the wolf girls life she hadn't even noticed Albedo slipping out until he pushed between them and deposited her load of wood into the fire. The heat flooded into the room, causing her to lean over the fire perhaps a little closer than a living person would be comfortable. "Thank's Albeado." She said. "Why don't you come down a little closer?" She patted the spot of floor beside her, but the Alchemist seemed content to remain to the couch and observe as the three of them talked. At least until he had a question that burned too hard for him to ignor.

Albedo cut to the heart of the matter, which was that Treat's living situation sucked. He house was cold, dark, and obviously haunted. Disembodied groans and bumps in the night were a both signs that you had a Poe on the property, and the fact that Treat hadn't found anything when she had gone to check was just further proof of a ghostly infestation. The one at the general store in her village had eventually started attacking people too, and she was glad they had taken this walk up here before it had gotten to that stage.

"No wonder this place seems so gloomy." Linkle said, hopping up. "Haunted places are always unnaturally gloomy. I'll bet it settled here because none of the lights are on, they hate the light." She looked around the dark room, walking around while running her hand along the walls to try and find some of those switches like they had in her motel room. "I think this place is actually pretty neat. It has that waterfall, and the beautiful view. I'll bet people would come visit all the time for picnics and stuff if the place was lit up and we put away some of these dolls. First, though, we should get rid of that Poe." She punched her own palm eagerly. "Don't worry Treat, I've dealt with plenty of Poe's before now. Let me at 'em and once I'm done you'll feel the change in this place."

”Lighting the laps, lighting the laps, if this doesn't do shit I’ma break you aaaaall” Midna said to herself in a sing song voice as she rode from lamp to lamp, baring the fire via burning branches broken off of trees. Once the last of them was lit her wolfos padded back from the scene so Midna could take in the fruits of her labor and exact her judgment on the lamps.

Clearly fearing for their existence, the lamps did as lamps do and burned warm and bright, and in the process thawing some of the frozen pools around the clearing and revealing first and foremost a classic sunken treasure chest within one of their waters.

”Alright you get to live. Court is adjourned because it is fishing time” she informed the lamps with an approving nod before getting her wolfos to pad over to the bountiful pool so that she could extend her shadow hand and lower it into the water like a salvage claw, plucking the chest from the water and then dumping it into the thawing snow. The princess hopped off of her mount, flicked open the locks and then in time honored tradition dramatically threw up the lid of the chest and then leaned in close, practically tipping over the edge into its interior to get a hold of its contents and then finally pulling them out and raising her prize aloft triumphantly.

You could almost here the “du-du-du-duuuuuuun” jingle playing as she finished her treasure collecting. Then the moment was over and she stopped showing the items and instead brought them down to eye level where she could actually examine them.

”Huh. Knives. Good job chest, you know what every girl wants.” she praised the chest as she examined the artfully made and ornamental decorated pair of blades. One was regular knife sized and decorated with a small gold skull, the other long enough to almost be a short sword in the impish woman’s hands. Both were styled with gold and sported a ruby gem on their pommel which may or may not have had a tangible benefit, but certainly did make them quite stylish. With the ornamentation in mind she gave them a discerning eye to see if there were any hints of magic involved or if they were just lovely, and expensive, pieces of craftsmanship. Unfortunately for the chest, its reward for holding such a nice prize ended up being hurled at a giant wasp a few moments later as the thawed out stinger hive incident occurred, the chest crashing into one of the wasps and shattering into splinters and metal fragments.

”Sorry, did I do that?” she asked rather rhetorically as the incident died down ”I mean look on the bright side, no one got hurt and someone gets to wear that stupid hat and crush an evil beehive spirit. Won't that be fun?”

While they were at that, and just before things froze over again, Midna rode over to pick through the tent. The beans and matches got tossed in with the other travel rations/supplies, while Midna picked through the other items herself while saying ”Huh, well that’s convenient. I was just thinking about getting some reading for the train rides earlier” as she inspected the tomes to see if any of them were worth an idle peruse. Said perusing was something she could do while riding in fact, thanks to her mount being more than smart enough to follow the gang’s lead while keeping its eyes peeled for threats.

So, after briefly dismissing her wolf and just floating up the waterfall after the troops, she spent a bit of the mostly uncontested ride through the snows covering the shallow slope leafing through the books and making the odd throwaway remark on their contents to anyone who would listen.

Sure there was the odd monster or pack of aggressive denizens that tried to pick a fight, but like the wasps, the rather large gang of heroes made short work of anything so stupid as to mess with them. Midna mostly left them to it and enjoyed the ride till they came across something of interest. Or rather something disturbing.

”Goddesses, what the fuck is this?” she had to ask as they came across a man who had first been entirely entombed in a statue that was bolted to a tree (which upon its branches it bore the little salty fruits that had been served in the spa last night, only here they were frozen solid by the winter snow) and then after that, to add injury to imprisonment, he appeared to have been shot with arrows.

”Hello hey. Are you OK? No wait of course you aren't your stick in a metal statue in winter. Are you alive?” she asked, riding closer to try and work out if the statue had, say, latches or something which could be undone to unseal its victim. ”Just hold on a little longer, and we’ll try and get you out” she told him as she did so, already committed to freeing this sorry soul from his torment.

Jesse switched into her winter outfit sometime up the mountain, fur on the top of the collar her jacket. The coat trailed behind her legs, and the dark red scarf she had collected wrapped around her mouth and nose. Gloves on her hands helped, and she was wearing thermals underneath her jeans. Not that this mattered much, but Jesse thought she cut quite the dramatic figure in her winter gear.

Past the riders, past the giant animal thing, past some giant wasps. Fun times were had by all. The worst part was that her lower legs were getting cold walking through the snow, but that was it. Overall, Jesse was having a good time. There was an energy about her, and her eyes glimmered as she spotted any individual wonder or creature or landmark. When people demonstrated fantastic combat abilities, the perceptive among them might feel her curious, appreciative gaze on them. From magic, to Persona's, to advanced weapons and tactics. All of them being demonstrated on exotic, impossible environments and dangerous creatures. It was joyous, though Jesse certainly wasn't the type to express the fun she was having with anything more than an upturning of her lips. She'd learnt a long time ago that the 'real' Jesse was off-putting to people. This was just her special little secret, between her and Polaris. And her brother, too, but...well. She'd let him down a long time ago.

Trudging through the frozen forest, Jesse scanned the environment, spotting a variety of creatures and denizens. None of which she had a particular interest in interacting with. Much like the bear, she would prefer to avoid conflict with creatures that weren't messing with them. Live and let live, if at all possible.

One thing caught her eye though, and Jesse raised her eyebrow. Up against, or, in, or perhaps, attached to a tree at the top of a knoll, was a man with long white hair. One side of her upper lip curled upward. It was a pitiable sight. Jesse picked up the pace and hurried over to the man in the statue. She wasn't even sure if he was alive or not, or if the wind was just buffeting his arms around. She followed Midna after her approach.

"Is he even alive?" Jesse asked when she was about fifteen feet away, looking to make eye contact with the man inside the statue.

"This guy could be some kind of supervillain." Jesse warned, but it wasn't a serious warning or concern. Even if he was, he was of no threat to them now. "But I don't think anyone deserves a fate like this."

She hazarded a guess that she could easily free the man with her Tool Gun, but she wasn't going to do so until she heard what he had to say first. Or, again, if he was even alive. Or if he was even sane or sentient.

"Well. Unless their crime was entombing people in statues on freezing mountaintops. Then, I guess they might technically deserve something like this." Jesse said to herself, shrugging half-heartedly.

As the soft snowdrifts and picturesque sleepy woodland of Baur’s reach gave way to ever more hazardous and uneven terrain, the merry band of seekers steadily drifted further apart. It was a naturally and subtly induced eventuality, borne of such simple and unspoken assumptions like the desire to not get in one another’s way, to not overtax already burdened means of traversal like loose rocks, breakable ice, or cold-stiffened branches, or even the hard-to-suppress childlike urge to tramp upon untouched snow. Other than designated comrades like the Phantom Thieves, the Tora Poppi duo, and the paired travelers Primrose and Therion, they made no particular efforts to clump back together, either. Although nobody could say that the going was either easy or comfortable, the relative lack of danger and difficulty made Big Band’s warnings begin to look rather like paranoia, and besides, most of those present had every reason to be confident in both themselves and one another. What seasoned fighter, after all, could be defeated by a little cold and rough terrain?

Bit by bit, however, Baur’s reach put its visitors’ self-assurance and lack of coordination to the test. It took firsthand experience to realize that the jaw plants grew not just on trees and rocks, but beneath the snow, too, and they closed like bear traps. The slender lures of angler plants, so easily mistaken for meltwater, caught more than one unwary adventurer even after the example set by Tora. Snow covered thinly frozen ponds here and there, with only the flatness of the area hinting at the danger, and any foot that went through the ice demanded immediate attention.

Once isolated, often out of sight of one another, the Seekers found it more troublesome to pick fights with the locals, too. The Snowmads and the wildlife, adapted for the environment, shrugged off the conditions that the newcomers struggled through, and knew the area like the backs of their proverbial hands. Once the Phantom Thieves realized how much more trouble the encounters were than they were worth, they elected to avoid battles completely, instead trusting in stealth to get them past the odd camp that lay in their path. Higher up in the Reach, Dirt Divers began to appear as well, bursting up from the ground in potent surprise attacks only to disappear below again just as quickly.

Not even the fliers got off scot-free; thorn-covered branches and dangerously sharp icicles plagued their every motion, with the beat of wings and the wind of one’s passage liable to disturb the piled snow that blanketed coniferous boughs and send down pillowy masses weighing hundreds of pounds. If they chose to forsake the snowy forests and heights of the Reach, they would find that the howling wind above the treetops made it a fight for every meter. Whether or not that seemed like a fair price to pay was a choice left to them.

Sooner or later, the nature of the trial they had undertaken dawned on just about everyone. They knew that this mountain climb would be neither easy nor simple, and now they were finding out why. By the time the heroes racked up an hour and a quarter in the Reach, their chipper journey had become a slog, substantially more difficult than the trek up through Redstone City. Though not a disaster or anything, it left each and every Seeker worse for wear. Numb extremities, chapped lips, fatigue, clothes dampened by snow that body heat melted, and throats roughened by hyperventilation of frigid air were commonplace. Long past the last stubborn redwood that watched over its fair-weather brethren like a lone sentinel, up where the pines thinned out and the olive trees withered, the group came to a stop and gradually gathered on the ridge where Midna espied the strange sight of warped man in a prison of iron.

Gémino made for a dreadful sight, to put it mildly. Immobile but for the free arm that protruded so unsettlingly from an opening in the statue’s midsection, he was totally at the mercy of both the elements and the fetters that bound him, so artfully engineered for the purpose of exquisite torment. Yet he was alive, as the eye contact he shared with Jesse proved. When the Twilight Princess moved to aid him, her little hands sliding across the metal in search of openings, his free arm bade her stop. “Oh, do not fret for me,” he told her, his voice a plaintive moan. “The cold is merciful, for it relieves our pain and numbs us before it leads us to our deaths. Perhaps the Miracle that others spoke of has come to me, here in this iron tomb, lengthening distress more and more…”

Big Band ceased dusting snow from his trench coat to tug at his collar, uncomfortable. Despite his incredibly unenviable situation, this poor soul sounded anything but distressed; in fact, he seemed oddly at peace with the grisly fate that appeared to have befallen him. Probably for the best, Band figured, since anyone could tell that this man’s days were numbered. Still, his pleas for Midna and the other heroes to leave him alone likely fell on deaf ears, since who among them could possibly accept someone suffering like this, and turn a blind eye to such a cruel display?

“‘Scuse me for puttin’ it bluntly, but you can’t be serious,” Band objected with an incredulous shake of his head. “You’re really okay goin’ out like this?”

“Naught could be more immaterial than my feelings on the matter,” the prisoner decreed.

“But…surely there something we can do to help?” Tora asked, his dark eyes full of sorrow. “Food, water, little heat maybe?”

“These remains would feel no such succor,” Gémino mourned. “Yet, there is something. Let me ask you the favor of bringing me a few drops of the oils that once came out of these icy olive trees, the ones that ended up scorching the faces of every pious person who ever reached the place where the frozen and the burning embrace in communion.” Gémino looked off into the distance, his eyelashes heavy with frost. “As my last wish, before it is too late for me, let me feel that pain.”

From his hand he dropped a small object that shone bright in the afternoon sunlight before it disappeared into the snow at his feet. A little digging turned up a golden thimble, tiny but beautiful–the vessel for the oil Gémino desired.

“Now, let my numbed arm become another branch on this withered olive tree,” the prisoner murmured. “Hurry up. I can still hear the call.”

Further communication proved useless, despite Tora’s best attempts, so with everyone now gathered from their divergent routes across the Reach there was little to do but press on. Not long after leaving Gémino and the trees behind, the way narrowed along the mountainside, and the heroes found the semblance of a path carved into the stone. Following it upward for another ten minutes or so through the biting wind brought them to the steps of an imposing stone brick structure nestled among the crags. It bore neither fortifications nor guards, which to Band suggested that it wasn’t a military structure. An empty chest lay at the foot of the stairs, surrounded by various meager offerings. When the group’s frontrunners climbed the steps and pushed on the place’s iron doors, they encountered no more resistance than their weight.



Inside the Seekers discovered a shelter fully outfitted with furniture, from bookshelves and urns to tables and chairs to hearths that blazed with delightful warmth. So too did they find company when a number of curious, wrinkled faces turned their way. Scattered around the place was a cadre of hooded elders, and though they scrutinized the newcomers thoroughly, not one of them said a word. After a moment some even returned to their various activities, including reading and some form of worship. One, however, strode the Seekers’ way. His concerned gaze lingered for a moment on the Phantom Thieves, Raz, and other young members, their presence constituted an irresponsible mistake on someone’s part.

“Good day to you, travelers, and welcome to our sanctuary,” he told the team. “I am Master Arngeir. I speak for the Greybeards. We will not question your coming, but if you come in peace, the hospitality of High Hrothgar is yours.”

Band took his hat off with a mechanical arm and gave a nod of gratitude. “Thank you kindly, mister. After wadin’ through all that ice an’ snow,’ a li’l hospitality is sorely needed.” He took another look around, searching for anything of note, but as far as the detective could see the Greybeards practiced rather ascetic lives. “We’re climbin’ the mountain, headin’ for the summit. Don’t suppose you got any advice?”

The news weighed on Arngeir, prompting a look of mixed worry and surprise. “The summit? And with so many? ‘Tis certainly no journey for the faint of heart. Rather than scale the icy stone, you would be better served by braving the Inner-Mountain. The tunnel lies just beyond this place, on the right. Find and repair the lift, and if your collective weight is not too great, you may enjoy swift egress from the interior.”

“Repair what Tora do best, meh!” the snow-sprinkled Nopon chirped, waving his wrench around. “Other than eat, sleep, invent, play Tiger-Tiger, upgrade Poppi…list go on.”

Arngeir’s brow furrowed. “Be warned, however. While the Inner-Mountain will hinder you with neither wind nor snow, it is a place that has never known warmth.”

“We hear ya,” Band assured him, and with a nod the Greybeard left the newcomers in peace. The detective looked around at the group, making sure that nobody was missing. “Let’s make sure we’re warm an’ dry. Might also be your last chance to think about whether or not ya really wanna be doin’ this. No shame headin’ back down with a glider now and backin’ us up later.” Peacock opened her mouth for a rebuttal, but Band rolled right over her. “Now, I ain’t sayin’ we’ve got any weak links here or nothin’. Just think about it. If you’re down, meet out back in half an hour.”

Poppi nodded. “Roger, roger!”

With that, the team dispersed. Whether they chose to park themselves by various fires or explore High Hrothgar, the heroes had thirty minutes to recuperate while they made their decisions.

Before they met the giant in his tree, the team had passed through Baur’s reach. Well, to say the team passed through was a bit of a misnomer, as Midna had found out.

See she had been nose deep in one of her looted books (nothing fancy to be honest, on basic camping guide and small set of paperback novels) when her mount, who had been carefully picking its way around all the obstacles on its own accord, suddenly leapt to the side without warning.

”Hey what the- ack!” she cried as a wave of snow washed over the two of them, causing her to drop and lose the book she had been reading.

”Hey I was enjoying that! Who the fuck let us get ambushed!” she shouted as she shook of the snow, only to realise that she and her ride had ended up on their own, in retrospect maybe they had not enjoyed her yammering on about the somewhat steamy book she was reading, and now she and her mount where alone and face to face with one of the peak’s beasts.

The Pendran’s wide flat body had allowed it to cleverly hide under the snow in ambush may have almost dashed them to pieces with a swipe of its mighty tail club, but now that it was exposed it wasn't that big (literally) of a threat. Or so she thought.

”That was the biggest and last mistake of your life, you frozen pancake!” she shouted at it before spurring her mount forwards while drawing the smaller of her two new knives. The draconian swung again at her, but the princess halted her ride’s charge just in time, casing the swing to sweep just in front of the poor wolfos as the princes herself leapt off of its back, over the sweeping club and then half flew half dropped down onto its back, before proceeding to slash the blade across three of its six eyes. It screamed and tried to claw her off, only for that claw to be grabbed and crushed by her shadow hand.

”Die you little- oh shit” she swore as it swung its massive club tail above its head. She leapt off of the head and back onto the back of her mount, but rather than accidentally brain itself in an attempt to get her off the beast started to slam its tail into the ground behind it repeatedly.

”Huh?” Midna said, confused momentarily right before a wave of snow sloughed off of the branches of the tree’s around the draconian and, more important, above her.

”Damnit move- bl-eh” she demanded of her mount, only to get showered in snow as it tried and failed to get her completely clear

”Urgh whyyyyy?” she complained, dusting herself off as best she could, feeling some of the snow melting and joining the first wave in gradually soaking her clothes. Unfortunately that wasn't even the end of it

The hammering brought down a swarm of Deegahla, kin of the Pendran who had been roosting in the trees. Despite their diminutive size, they were not anywhere close to harmless. The spear nosed beasts had been driven into a fury by their land born cousin’s hammering and began diving down like arrows to try and skewer the princess.

”Fuck fuck fuck” she yelled in a panic as her mount fled from the living arrows, weaving its path and causing one or two to slam into the snow, which softened their landings enough that they simply fluttered up again afterwards. Those that didn’t miss the princess did her best to guard them against, a small shadow hand snapping out slapped one down and then grabbed and crushed another, while the princess parried a third away with her shield.

”Buzz off sky rats!” she demanded of the others, stabbing at the air with the knife she had charged while the initial volley was coming in, shooting a thin beam of lightning that struck another out of the sky. Yet even after that there were still more than half dozen left, and their larger landborn kin was now charging after her.

A frustrated princess growled in frustration before snapping her fingers and uttering a ”Wait, ha, got it!” before standing and jumping off the back of her mountain again, then dismissing it a moment before it got skewered. Then she used a shadow hand to draw halfway up a tree and then hauling herself all the way to the top in a flash, while summoning her vibrava in the wolfos’ place.

It was better suited for fighting the aerial foes, but with 1 vs 7 it wasn’t going to be an even fight.

For them

”Come and get me idiots” Midna taunted as she clung to the top of the tree with dragon clawed gloves and boots, while raising her shadow hand up and channeling a dark energy zone around her. The quickly expanding like field or orange and shadow warded off the flyers for a moment, weary of this unknown effect, but a dragon breath from vibrava striking down one and another braving the field and finding nothing brought them all charging right into her trap, at the exact same time as the Pendran came in to try and club down her tree.

”Gottcha” Midna elated, snapping her shadow hand’s fingers and unleashing the field, momentarily stunning all of the fliers and letting her vibrava dart to and fro, crunching the skulls of the immobilized and marked for death deegahla. As it swooped to and fro in a flash, the princess formed a twilight gate on the trunk of the tree and pulled out the massive and unwieldy spiked ball on a stick that was the Clubba Club, which she promptly casually dropped down on the head of the head of the Pendran.

The plummeting club bashed in the brains of the poor draconian, causing it to sway once and then burst into ash as the spirits of the smaller deegahla drifted down around it like falling snow.

The princess sighed in relief that that was over, taking a moment to sit and rest on a branch, before shivering as the damage done by the battle caught up with her. Namly being showered with snow twice, which left her clothes damp and unpleasant.

”Ok. Fine. No more reading,” she told to herself, before drifting down to collect her fallen club and the spirit’s of the fallen. The lost book could stay lost for all she cared, this was all its fault after all.

---

Later, the team grouped back up (Midna found them again by following the light on her friendship bracelet while being much more watchful for ambushes and avoiding any other fights) and found a giant imprisoned in a statue that was bolted to a tree.

”Then we’ll deal with that when we deal with it” was Midna’s response to Jesse’s very mild paranoia about the trapped figure being a villainous one. The princess wasn't exactly fond of eye for an eye punishment, so if this man had done something so terrible as to deserve this monstrous fate, then in her opinion it would be best just to kill him rather than let this travesty go on.

Unfortunately someone who did think this kind of punishment was just fine and dandy was the victim of it, of all people. As she drifted close and tried and failed to find a simple opening mechanism the man told her to lay off and leave him to his fate, a request that shocked the princess enough for her to back off and let him say his piece.

Once he was done and would speak no more, Midna floated down to collect the little thimble and then drifted back to look up at the literal giant of a man, sealed in iron and calmly awaiting his fate. In any world where the dead did not turn to ash, it would have been hard to tell if he still even lived.

”Goddesses, what kind of mad place did he come from?” she asked with a half whisper, before looking up, up and up towards the peak of the mountain they were climbing to where the place he had spoken of must rest, and knew that there they were now destined to find out.

---

They kept going until they found a frozen keep, perched upon the side of a cliff. Though from the outside it looked quite vacant, upon entering they found it occupied by a small cadre of silent old men known fittingly as the greybeards, along with one who spoke for them, a Master Arngeir.

He advised them against ascending in such great a number, and offered them a different way up the mountain, one free from snow, if one no less freezing cold.

”Given a choice between cold, windswept and wet and cold and dark I’ll take cold and dark thanks,” was a temporarily mask-less Midna’s opinion on the matter as she took advantage of some of the fires to deal with some of the outside’s worst aspects, namely all the snow that had been dumped on her and had soaked her X-naut uniform. Her faithful wolfos meanwhile did as the canines did and shook itself clean of snow, though not before being directed outside again so as to not soak any nearby friends or old men in the process.

While her clothes were drying out she did some spirit management. She got her hands on the awful mimic hat, and while wearing it crushed the spirits of the stinger nest and the small spear nosed Deegahla, while the Pendran she infused into the wolfos she had ridden while fighting it. It had been a decent opponent, and she suspected her mount could do with some cold resistance if they were to keep climbing higher.

Among the Seekers, no hero took breaks with quite the gusto that Tora did, no matter the occasion or what might be at stake. No sooner did the break command disseminate among the members of his team than the Nopon waddled straight over to a fire and plopped himself down in front of it, snug between two Greybeards already warming themselves there. “Hello friends, how are you? Nice and roasty-toasty?” He paid them no mind as they scooted away in brusque silence, instead giving all his attention to the beacon of warmth in front of him. With his limbs spread wide he soaked it in, eyes closed in bliss. “Meeeeeeh,” he cooed. “Poppi make excellent radiator on way up, and Tora really appreciate it, but nothing quite like roaring fireplace, meh.”

After offering both Greybeards an apologetic bow, the inventor’s companion seated herself by his side. While she didn’t experience cold quite like her Masterpon, Poppi’s systems suffered from prolonged exposure to the elements too, so a few minutes to warm back up would do both a world of good. And if Master Arngeir’s account of the Inner-Mountain in store for them at the end of this brief respite was no exaggeration, they would need every modicum of heat in their bodies that they could get. Of course, Poppi was loath to spoil the enjoyable moment with talk of more hardship yet to come, so she just sat with her legs crossed upon the stone floor, leaning against Tora as he leaned against her, and thought. Going through the trial that had been Baur’s Reach and knowing that even worse was to come would dampen the spirits of just about anyone, but somehow the Nopon seemed content. Even if she could see the world from a more logical and unbiased perspective than her creator, she saw the wisdom in his simple philosophy. A daunting road lay ahead of them, but rather than spend the present in worry for the future, her Masterpon chose to take his days one minute at a time, savoring each bit of happiness that came his way. How very Tora, she concluded, and with a smile she scratched his back.

A few quiet, peaceful minutes passed by. The pair kept still, listening to the crackle of firewood and the murmurs of their friends throughout High Hrothgar. Not once during that time did they hear any Graybeard besides their spokesperson Arngeir speak. At first Tora thought that they might just be unfriendly, since a number of the old men sported grizzled, severe countenances that made one think twice about exchanging pleasantries, but the elders didn’t even converse among themselves. Eventually, the Nopon posed the question to his companion. “Everyone here very quiet, don’t you think?”

“Mm-hm,” Poppi agreed, her tone hushed. “Maybe they take vow of silence. This strike Poppi as some sort of religious order, sort of like Grimleal in Al Mamoon, or Indoline Praetorium.”

Tora nodded sagaciously in agreement. “Meh, meh. Good point! Tora wonder what they worship. Grimleal worship evil dragon Grima, right? And Praetorium worship Titans, including Indol itself, which is also dragon. Maybe beardypons worship dragons, too?” He glanced over his shoulder on impulse, but after a few uneventful moments spent looking around it seemed like nobody would sidle up to offer some convenient exposition. Oh well.

Now that she knew Tora didn’t mind conversation, Poppi pursued another subject. “So, how Masterpon faring? What think of climb so far?”

“Not too bad,” the Nopon replied with a shrug. “Not like cold, of course, but thanks to Poppi, Tora not need drag undercarriage through snow, meh. Although, it kind of feel like friends are going…too fast, if that make sense?”

The question appeared to excite Poppi a little. “Oh, Masterpon feel it too? Poppi was wondering if it was silly thought, it but it feel almost like shame we have to run through beautiful place, past all sorts of interesting things we maybe should attend to. Like poor man in statue. Of course we have mission to do, and cold make it hard to stick around, but Poppi can’t help but be curious.”

“Exactly! Tora always wonder if we walk right by shiny-sparkly treasures without ever knowing. After all, when on adventure with Rex-Rex and friends, we find treasures most anywhere we look! Or at least, stuff for cooking and crafting, meh.” Sensing that his time was about over, and plenty warm by now anyway, Tora picked himself off the ground before he could start sweating in his overalls. “And Poppi not need worry. Tora think enough silly thoughts for both of us!”

The two made their way through High Hrothgar at a leisurely pace, doing their best not to get lost in all of the more or less identical stone brick halls. As a result they reached the Seekers’ meeting point without issue, where they found a small group already formed. Big Band stood over them all, at ease thanks to a little time spent tuning himself up by the braziers to warm his frosty cheeks and get his B♭ oil mixture flowing again. His companion Peacock, however, looked less than pleased. As Tora waddled up, he sent a concerned look her way. “Hi hi. Everything alright, meh?”

“Naw, see,” Peacock began. “I’ve just about had it up to here with this stinkin’ mountain, ya get me? Nothin’ but snow, snow, ice, and more snow! I mean, good grief. Ain’t a lick of fun in the whole joint! I’ve got two halves a mind sayin’ I oughta blow the joint and watch cartoons back in Tacoville.”

Band furrowed his brows. “Cry me a river, Pea. I know it ain’t sunshine an’ roses up here, butcha can’t jus’ turn tail when things get rough. Some of us don’t got a choice in the matter. What about buildin’ character?”

“Character’s what they got on T.V., gramps,” Peacock informed the detective, her arms crossed and a matter-of-fact look on her face. “You’ll be fiiiiine. Just gimme a ring when you’ve found yer mawl, alright? Then I’ll pop right up and clean its clock!”

She produced and swung around a bat as if to demonstrate, causing Band to shake his head in resignation. It was at that time that Mao appeared, wearing a frown as he stepped forward to get Band’s attention. “Actually, count me out too.”

The big man blinked twice. “You sure you ain’t messin’ around? It looked like you were handlin’ yourself jus’ fine, son.”

Mao put on an expression of annoyance. “I’m not your son, or a kid for that matter, and be that as it may, climbing the mountain is a waste of my valuable time and energy. I’ve got plenty I can do in the meantime. Weapons to mod, experiments to run, stuff to figure out about this interesting little world we’ve ended up in. When you need me to come up and kill this thing for you, I’ll know.”

Band sighed. “Whatever you say, son. Just make sure you keep your hand on the plow.” After Mao sauntered off, he scanned the rest of those who’d arrived to carry on through the next leg of the voyage. The Phantom Thieves stood ready, their attire as dry and snow-free as could be. Midna seemed eager to proceed, having made the most of what she’d gleaned during the trip through Baur’s Reach. Everyone else kept their counsel, either reluctant to share their answers or confident in the presence of their tacit understanding. Band deployed his mechanical arm and laid its brass knuckle against High Hrothgar’s steely back door. “If you’re callin’ it quits, use the gliders I passed out earlier an’ fly back down to town.”

“Make sure to get ferrystone so you can warp up to join us later!” Poppi reminded them.

“Right.” Band nodded. “Everyone else? Let’s boogie.”

---

It was dark in the tunnels, and cold. Cold even in comparison to the wintry heights outside around High Hrothgar, which for all their frigid bleakness at least lay beneath the light of the sun. Torches collected from the braziers by the tunnel’s mouth, courtesy of the Graybeards’ prudence, allowed the Seekers to beat back the pitch black that awaited them, but their paltry heat could not quell the chill. With the tunnel only so wide, Tora and Poppi took point both for the sake of defense and illumination, since the fiery glow of the various lights on the artificial blade’s body provided a more constant light than the sputtering torches. Beside them floated Necronomicon, releasing intermittents bloops as her scanner pinged the inscrutable tunnel ahead for any sign of danger. Joker and Panther followed right behind them, their literal and metaphoric firepower at hand should the need arise, but no nasty surprises reared their ugly heads. It was, against all odds, smooth sailing.

Until they spotted light ahead, and advanced into the first cave only to be faced with a startling sight. Bluish rays poured down through distant cracks to reveal not just the classic icy bottomless pit, and not just a frozen zig-zag bridge spanning it, but also a monstrous titan trapped in the ice. He loomed from the wall in all his enormity, all sickly, yellowish, scabrous skin and hornlike ridges. Even Big Band stood no taller than the bridge of his nose. His eyes were shut and no warm breath issued from his lips, but whether he hung there in death or mere cryosleep, Big Band couldn’t rightly say. He took a deep breath and shook his head. “Startin’ off with a bang, huh,” he whispered. “Well, folks. Watch your step, and for the love of all that’s holy, keep quiet!”

After some prodding from Poppi Tora shuffled forward onto the ice bridge, where he spread his wings out for balance. He took one final look at the titan, under whose very nose he would need to tiptoe, gulped, and took the first step of his new and terrifying journey into the mountain’s heart.

As the samurai and the keybearer argued, it seemed their allies figured out a solution to the problem as their argument was interrupted by a large sneeze that blew each of them back a couple feet. Yoshitsune ran over to see if Midna was ok while Sora ran to the cave, looking at the bear.

When the bear spoke, both were startled. Yoshitsune readied himself to draw his weapons if he needed, though it seemed he didn't. Sora stood with his mouth hanging open in surprise and confusion.

For the most part, they stayed away from each other as they followed the party. Yoshitsune chose to stick close to the Twilight Princess as Sora moved up near Big Band.

As Midna was lighting the lanterns, the oriental warrior stuck to the middle of the path, though never far from his ally. Upon her gathering a treasure of knives, he eyed them himself with curiosity. "They seem to be good weapons," he said, passing her shoulder.

At some point, the group had lost a few members. Seeing Midna was among the missing, the swordsman looked at the friendship bracelet. He grew concerned at the dull glow but grew more and more relieved when he noticed it glowing brighter, meaning his friend was getting closer.

Eventually, they reached a stone building, one that looked ancient compared to even the samurai's time. The men inside didn't seem friendly nor did they seem hostile.

At least, not until one of them actually greeted them.

"An inner tunnel. Without the wind, I should at least be able to give off some warmth," Yoshitsune replied, drawing his fire blades.

Sora, in curiosity, looked at the other Greybeards. "Can they talk?" he asked Arngeir.

"They lost their normal voices long ago to the Thu'um," Arngeir replied. "They can only shout now. Even a whisper in the Thu'um can be deadly if used accidentally or incorrectly."

"What's the Thu'um?" Sora asked in curiosity.

"The dragon tongue. They speak and create truth. You speak the word for fire and your next breath becomes flames."

"Can I learn it?"

"I do not doubt that you could, had you the time. I believe you need to join your allies when they travel on. My apologies."

With a shrug, Sora moved to one of the fires, sitting next to Tora and Poppi. Upon hearing their conversation, he looked at Arngeir. "You can ask him. I did. He said something about the Thu'um that I don't really understand."

-------------------------

As the heroes began traveling through the cave, Yoshitsune stuck closer to Midna, not wanting her to get lost again. He held his flaming swords, giving them and wherever else was close enough some heat.

As they approached the icey bridge, Yoshitsune frowned. Turning to Sectonia, he sheathed his swords and bowed slightly. "My apologies," he began, "but would you be willing to carry me across? I fear my wheels are not good for this path and they would be much too loud for me to try to make this a quick pass."

Sora, on the other hand, just began walking across as if there was no problem. He stayed quiet as he looked at the giant's head, passing right past it, and continued to the opposite side. He waved back once he was safely on the other side.

If being Peach came with any perks, it was that she knew she could count on Bowser to come after her, no matter what the situation. Less a tendency or a trend and more a fact, it came as a curse back in the Mushroom Kingdom she hailed from, but in this world she counted it as a blessing. As the Koopa King stomped up behind her to back her up, she couldn’t avoid a split second spent marveling at just how much they had changed. Nobody could look at her as she was now, a different woman from head to toe, and recognize the dainty princess who filled her days with parties, golf, and tennis rather than leadership. It had been just days since the heroes arrived to rescue her from captivity yet again, but since then she’d become someone who could negotiate with foreign powers, skate on water, and manipulate the soul itself. And for Bowser the changes had been even more drastic–suffice to say, he was an entirely different beast. As the Beguiling Siren arrived, so too did the other fighters who’d joined her little division. Junior’s gadgets and minion hordes would provide a tactical edge, Blazermate could support her team through both healing and the use of her zombies as fodder, and Link…having seen him in action before, what could Peach say that might do the ageless hero justice?

This monster would be dead before it knew what hit her.

“Let’s do this!” There was no time to waste. This wasn’t just a fight, but a race, and one in which losing wasn’t an option. While Bowser called for a power-up from his absent mage, Link charged forward with Blazermate aloft behind him, boosting his vitality beyond its limits. Peach launched forward as well, scatterboom held tight. Despite the risk to herself, she planned to jam the barrel of her shotgun right into this freak’s bulbous face and let ‘er rip. The Beguiling Siren did not flinch as the two moved in with vicious weapons at the ready, but blew into the ruddy, spiked conch shell that she clutched between webbed fingers. On high alert, Peach watched some sort of aura shimmer around her, momentarily causing her form to shimmer and sway like a desert mirage, but no attacks flew toward her, and no hexes befell her. With Link a good few strides ahead of her Peach couldn’t see his front, but he seemed fine, too. A shield, maybe? she conjectured, remembering Master Hand’s barrier, which only appeared when struck. Well, whatever. She spotted Junior flying in, and the pound of heavy feet behind her told her that Bowser was on his way, and in just a second his long stride would bring her past Peach. This hideous fish couldn’t possibly withstand them all

Despite the allies at his back, Link seemed determined to end the fight in one stroke. He channeled both his full momentum and newfound strength through the jet-black shaft of his ebony battle axe and into its wicked blade, ready to cleave the Siren from clavicle to sacrum. Then Bowser’s giant mitt closed around his armored shoulder, its claws catching hold, and the hero of time found himself yanked bodily backwards mid-swing. Peach yelled in surprise as the burly boy hurled her way at high speed, powerless to do anything before he slammed into her and sent both to the stone floor in a painful, concussive impact. What in the world just happened?! When Peach’s head stopped spinning, she refocused her vision to see Bowser, and though he stood in front of the Siren, he was facing her, Link, Blazermate and Junior. “What the shit are you doing?!” she exploded, staggering to her feet. “Are you out of your mind?” On closer inspection, however, the glaze over his eyes told her that he might very well be. Two more monsters, summoned by the Siren as additional meatshields, fanned out on either side of him: a barnacle-crusted Uca Major and the terrifying Uca General. Peach grit her teeth and began to move. This just got a lot more complicated.

Link kipped up a moment later, rubbing his shoulder and staring at Bower. In confusion, at first, and then dawning horror as he realized what was happening.

Blazermate saw what was going on with Bowser almost immediately as there were Medabots that did this exact same thing, a bit of mind control which she wasn’t surprised Bowser was weak against all things considered. Although these often had massive drawbacks from her experience. Commanding her Murloc zombies to keep the koopa king busy by limiting his movement, covering his eyes, that whole thing, Blazermate zoomed to put herself behind the Siren and activated her projectile shield with the Siren inside it, electrocuting the creature with the high intensity plasma. An audible sizzling sound could be heard all around as she was being cooked alive, but only for a brief instant. The moment the pain struck the Siren she dodged out of it, sliding across the watery floor toward the Uca Champion for protection. As she came to a stop she placed her conch to her lips and trilled a sharp note. From the bottom of the shell extruded a flurry of fleshy, fang-toothed tendrils, as long and lithe as mangrove roots, to strike across a wide area. Blazermate wasn’t that deterred however, as she flew above the siren to keep the shield on her as best as she could, tentacles having a difficult time getting through the shield as she used the slow the shield gave to make the Uca Champion’s life hell.

Blazermate’s assumption of Bowser being weak to mind control was confirmed a moment later when his son shouted ”Aw come on dad, not again!” as what had happened to Bowser as the king turned to face them instead of the fish, his eyes blank but not vacant. This was no fury Bowser, he was entirely in control and smart enough to think, even if that wasn’t his strong point.

”Showtime!” he roared, before retracting into his shell and spinning on the ground while firing his back spikes up into the air. Little fins and propellers deployed from the backs of the spike as they rose up, and caused them to swiftly turn and rain down on the team of four, spikes primed to spear into body or ground alike, at which point they started pulsing ominously.

“Behind!” Link shouted, jumping back and holding up the arm upon which rested his new shield. As the spikes came falling at them he judged their speed, did some swift assessment, and swung his shield arm at the last possible moment. He managed to parry a fair few of them, sending them flying back toward the Koopa King and the crab monsters that flanked him. Not all though, as more left gouges in Link’s breastplate as they bounced off and clattered to the ground around him. He was thrown off balance, and a few remaining spikes would have buried themselves in his arms and exposed legs were it not for the combined efforts of Tidehunter’s hardiness and Blazermate’s surplus of healing energy. It still felt like being shot with a Lynel’s arrows though, and when he regained his footing he couldn't help but notice the pulsing of the spikes at his feet. “Move!” He called, trying to dodge to the side before the spikes did whatever they were going to do. Peach, no stranger to this technique, hastened to flee as well despite fresh stab wounds.

”Way ahead of you!” the prince shouted over the sound of tires splashing through water as he raced away from the spike-peppered area on kart wheels deployed from his clown car, speeding towards the side of the bulwark of shelled toughs the siren had put between herself and them.

”Two can play that game!” Bowser barked as the parried spikes came his way, deploying his little mecha mit energy shield and slapping towards the returned volly and preparing to copy cat Link’s move. Lacking basically any of the finesse of the hero however, the king’s scally arm did most of the work, batting some of the spikes away from his face at the cost of grazes and bruises while a pair still struck his shell mostly harmlessly, before falling to the ground. Ignorant of the spikes blinking rapidly at his feet the king laughed ”That’s right! Run fairy boy, run! Ghahahaha!”

Blazermate didn’t have to move much to guard herself, although she did have an instinct to guard the others, she knew that’d bring her into range of a giant mind controlled bowser, and that wouldn’t end well. So though she wanted to keep her projectile shield on Siren to cook her, but since her barrier didn’t cover all angles, she needed to divert it to block any of Bowser’s spikes that headed Blazermate’s way. They just fizzled when they hit her projectile shield, the explosions finding that her blue energy wall was impassible. Of course Dell was working in the background, but his ability to upgrade the sentry was hampered by Bowser’s spike rain. The blasts that hit him not only caused him to disappear and leave the weapon isolated, but also dealt an equal amount of damage to Blazermate herself. With the Siren’s minions in the way the little level 1 gun plunked away at the nearest target, that being Bowser. Meanwhile, Blazermate herself needed to stay close to the ground to be able to use her shield offensively, which put her in harm’s way when the Uca Major aimed to smash her with its giant claw. This forced Blazermate to fly out of the way, her shield getting slightly scratched by the claw as she flew up, her shield not having much time to contact the siren. When in the sky, she oversaw what everyone else was doing, and yelled. ”Oy, ignore the mind controlled guy and just focus the boss down. We don’t have time to waste. Put yourself between Bowser and the siren and just dodge Bowser’s attacks, he’ll hit the siren that way.”

Once clear of Bowser’s spikes, Peach took a different approach. Whether on the dealing end or the receiving end, she didn’t want to fight the big lug period. Instead she went wide and took to the water, taking a few moments to flank the danger zone whereas Blazermate had flown straight overhead. The medabot’s bravery appeared to be meeting with mixed results, since the Siren turned out to be a lot more mobile than she looked, and her Ucas weren’t about to just let Blazermate float there and pull off her fish fry. Skirting across the water, Peach hurled a grenaduck to disrupt the enemy cluster, then rushed in to fire off a long-overdue, point-blank scatterboom. As she approached she spotted the Uca Champion turn to address the threat. It pulled knives from its back and hurled them at the inbound princess, and though she managed to swerve past them, the hideous crab would be in her way before she could get into close quarters. With a grunt of frustration Peach fired her scatterboom early to deal both monsters a moderate blow, then wheeled away for another pass.before she could overextend herself. With so many big enemies on the field, getting close enough to deal real damage would be an issue. As precious seconds ticked away, Peach wracked her brain to think of something.

Jr’s method of dealing with the big guys was to use the fact that the arena was big, big enough to fit piles of ruined buildings inside, to just go around the big guys. Sparks flared from the tires of his clown car in kart form as he drifted in a wide circle around to the left with motorized speed, before ending the drift and gaining a speed boost for his efforts, which he used to race back into the fight from a flanking angle.

”Mimi, electroball!” Jr commanded, getting a “mi mi” from his shoulder sitting mon minion as she quickly charged up and then a “kyuuuu!” as she hurled the ball of lightning forwards ahead of them. It struck the Uca Champion and jolted through its body to the ground in a respectable bit of damage. If that was all he was going to do, however, then jr could have just kept circling. Instead the bunny-hopped his car up into the air, keeping his momentum as he ascended and deployed a wrecking ball out of one side with which he aimed to use to perform a fly-by smash against the fishy freak who had ensnared his father. Focused on Peach, the Siren didn’t notice the attack in time to dodge it, and got brained right in the head.

Speaking of his father, the king was in the midst of having his feet exploded on as the timers on his spike torpedoes reached their end and sent a wave of explosions rocking across the hero’s side of the battlefield and then the two he was standing next to also went off.

”Gahahaha” he roared, followed by an ”Ow! Ow! Ow!” of pain as he got plinked by the infuriating sentry gun. Once steady he brought up his mecha mit shield up to block the fire just as he had done when the sentry builder had been encountered, and then proceeded to burn half his summons.

”Heel, heal me! Hammer bros, wreck that turret! Marie, scrap that stupid flying bot!” he commanded before declaring ”I’m going to kill me a hero!”

The same magic controlling the king’s mind and spirit rolled up through his connections to his strikers, causing them to accept his targets without questioning why they were shooting former allies.

The Hammer Bro’s let loose their arching building tools, hailing the sentry with indirect fire, and with the Engineer still on cooldown they ran into no trouble scrapping the thing for an easy win.

Above the battlefield Marie hovered into the air opposite Blazermate and emotionlessly flicked a hand, sending a barrage of skulls towards her, before also pointing down below her feet and bringing up a gang of skeleton mobsters behind her who tried to gun her down with their tommyguns. A two pronged assault designed to counter her directional shield, and one that would leave her a sitting duck for the Uca Major.

Finally the enthralled king himself was restored to full HP by the Rabbid Supporter Heel, and once patched up he drew the pair of bloody shears Link had found by scrounging only a few minutes earlier. Leaving the Rabbid to heal up the Siren and her minions, the king started bounding his way over towards the hero in a series of deceptively swift leaps with scissor sword and mecha shield in hand like some oversized mockery of the sword and board man’s art.

His final landing sent a fiery shockwave circling out around the impact site, and then the King guarded himself with the mitt’s little shield while he began trying to unskillfully smash the hero of Hyrule over the head with the pair of shears (or stab or snip him if the angle presented itself, but smashing very much was the name of the game here). Meanwhile his many tentacles darted down in a rolling barrage of strikes, each in turn trying to nab him with their poisonous touch. If the hero didn't stand and try to deal with this and instead opted to run, the king would blast him with a razor shoals inflicting hydro pump, possibly knocking him over and even if not, the soaking would make running away feel like trying to sprint through a sea of ghastly knives.

Blazermate was forced to fly yet even higher as Bowser summoned the old skullgirl to deal with the medabot, the skullgirl attacking her from two different angles forcing her to fly higher to get the shield to block the skulls and machine gun fire, but being able to do basically nothing else. Dell meanwhile was forced yet again to abandon his building or get crushed by Bowser’s attack, but this attack destroyed the almost built sentry, forcing him to start from scratch once again. Hopefully this mind control would end soon, as Blazermate’s shield was starting to flicker signifying it was about to end.

Link had turned back when he heard the last of the explosions, taking the short moment to catch his breath as the King laid out his orders and the strikers appeared to go about their work. He started to circle around the side like the others, trying not to battle with the king for both of their sakes, but Bowser saw fit to bring the fight to him. Link managed to leap the fiery shockwave as Bowser landed, but in only a moment the king was upon him and bringing his many limbs upon him. They found only ice, as Link had taken the Slate and fired the Cryonis Rune under him in mid air. As Bowser went low, Link went high. The ice pillar was smashed to pieces, but by that time Link had already taken a flying leap from his perch that carried him over Bowser’s head.

While airborne he swapped to his bow and took aim at the rabbit he had seen healing the King in the aftermath of the explosions. The same rabbit that now remained behind with their true enemies. Time slowed down, which he knew would cut into his stamina and ability to avoid Bowser, but they couldn't afford to let any of the damage they had inflicted be undone. He let loose with an arrow at Heel, hopefully before it got an heal off on the Siren, then time resumed it’s normal flow. The arrow flew true, striking the rabbid in his snow-white noggin, and despite Link’s best intentions the puncture wound carried through to Bowser’s head as well.

He landed with a roll behind Bowser, then took off directly toward the enemy in a series of short bursts of speed. Behind him Bowser turned, unleashing a pair of water blasts after him, but in the hero's wake Cia appeared with a scowl on her face and the gate of souls above her head. Four Dark Link’s flipped out of it in rapid succession, charging forward and being blasted in the real Link's place. As the clump of dark clones was scattered by the blast and vanished the sorceress wagged her finger at him before vanishing herself.

As Link closed in on his target, the Siren turned to face him, still holding her head where Junior’s wrecking ball struck her. She released a garbled cry for help, then put her conch to her lips to use Devour again. For the second time a flurry of vile tentacles surged forth to attack the hero, these ones tipped with snakelike jaws to pierce and bite his flesh, but the attack came more out of desperation than calculation and Link knew it. The Uca Champion turned to help the Siren, raising its arms to come in with a massive wallop, but allied reinforcement arrived just then, too. “Hey, eyes on me!” Peach cried, sliding in with Chao Ho’s giant fan in hand. Despite the monster’s immense strength she managed to turn its attack in an impressive parry. As the behemoth floundered, Peach deployed a heel torpedo to launch herself upward in an explosive flash kick. At the apex of her jump she brought out her scatterboom once more and blasted the monster in the face. Her attack gave Link the chance he needed to close the rest of the distance.

Close he did with one final burst of speed. He couldn't parry or side jump the Siren’s wide ranging attack, so he raised his shield to protect his face and neck as he dove forward into the maws. He felt the bites of the snakelike tendrils, hot pinpricks of pain all over his legs and right arm, but he didn't stop. Though without the power of Blazermate’s Kritz he swung forward with the ebony battleaxe again to make good on his interrupted attack from earlier.

While the Link attacked the siren from below, Jr swung around and attacked from above, swooping down in his clown car, its boxing glove arms deployed and the right one drawn back to deliver the first of a flurry of punches to the fishy femme fatal’s fugly face.

”Princess look out!” came a cry of alarm from behind them as the out of position Bowser saw what was happening to his enthraller. He’d put himself exactly where Blazermate suggested they get him, with the heroes in between him and the siren, preventing him from firing off his various projectiles for fear of striking her. Unfortunately, he had one new trick up his sleeves. He leapt into the air, roaring ”Scylla!” and summoning the giant oceanic guard dog in the gap between him and the core of the battle.

The titan, in her prime rather than the rotten near corpse he had killed, materialized right behind Peach and Link’s position, raising herself up on her forearms to take a pose similar to the siren’s. This let her grasping and spearing tentacles to arch up and then lance downwards in precise near vertical strikes that didn’t risk harming her summoner’s allies. The king meanwhile landed on her tail, but found himself stumbling rather than racing forwards more, the summoning of the titan having taken the wind out of him at just the wrong moment. Link heard the monster appear suddenly behind him, but more than that he felt it as it displaced the air. He glanced back, jumping to the side as the monster's tentacle slammed down where he’d once been, and decided to keep up the pressure on the Siren.

Blazermate’s shield ran out around this point, forcing her to use her mobility to dodge all the stuff Marie was throwing her way. If they survived this Blazermate was going to give Bowser a piece of her mind, he didn’t know how to deal with being mind controlled! Instead he just went all in with everything he had all at once like an idiot… But that last thing he summoned did give Blazermate an idea. A risky idea, but an idea.

Using her suffering shield, she commanded any undead in the area to attack Marie. Now this didn’t have much of an effect on her skeletal gangsters, only causing a mild bit of confusion, but it did get her to have to focus on the murlocs now running at her. Meanwhile Blazermate moved over to the giant tentacle monster Bowser had summoned and, while she took a few hits in the process, Blazermate used this monster to generate more Ubercharge thanks to its large size and ease of hitting. She then used this ubercharge to fire a Medaforce beam at the Siren while she was preoccupied with Link.

The stamina depletion incurred by the manifestation of Scylla, along with the accumulated damage inflicted on all the other Strikers, combined to put Bowser in such a state of exhaustion that he could barely move, let alone sustain all of his summons. Scylla, Marie, and the rest disappeared, and as the battlefield’s chaos reduced to more manageable levels, Bowser fell flat on his stomach, too tired to continue and of no more use. The charm that muddled his mind faded away.

The Siren, however, had her own problems. Though slippery as an eel and much more clever, she couldn’t dodge Link’s overwhelming onslaught, and repeated cleaves from his axe were taking their toll. When Junior arrived to cut off her escape with a flurry of fisticuffs, things went from bad to worse, leaving the Siren with just one option. She screeched out a desperate call for aid, prompting the Uca Major to charge straight for her. It grabbed its master with its claw, putting itself directly in harms way, and hurled her toward safety at the cost of its own life. It melted away in the Medaforce Beam meant for its master, but it's sacrifice bought the Siren enough time to unleash her Song of Desire once more. At least Blazermate was healed back up thanks to her medaforce beam.

Recognizing the eldritch melody, Peach rushed to plug her ears. For a moment she stood still on the water’s edge, teeth clenched as she concentrated as hard as she could in hopes of resisting the spell. Her focus came to an abrupt end when two undead murlocs jumped at her, gurgling hideously as they swung their ghoulish weapons. A reflexive blast of her scatterboom reduced one to smithereens, and Peach blocked the other’s swing with her shotgun. The bone bludgeon bounced off, and she followed up with a shove that staggered the thing long enough for it to meet its maker in a second spray of obliteration. Knowing what this must mean, Peach turned to find the Siren happy as a clam on the receiving end of Blazermate’s medibeam, the Medabot now under the menace’s control.

”Aw goomba shoes, that ain't good” was Jr’s very frank assessment of how things were going. His papa was down for the count and all their hard work was getting undone right before their eyes ”We need to get Blazermate away from that fish!”

“Here. Let me get that for you” came the electronic salesman voice of the sentient meat hook, right before it whipped out of jr’s clown car’s mouth and hurtled towards Blazermate, aiming to whip around her and bind her arms and waist in a loop of chain before linking to that chain as well, forming a metal lasso loop around her.

”Koopa Corps, get ready to pull!” Jr commanded, as he landed on the ground, kart wheels deployed, and summoned a squad of koopa troopa strikers, who would, if/when Blazer was hooked, grab onto the chain. Then together they would all run/drive in the opposite direction from the fishy tyrant, pulling her newly acquired healer bot away from her side without hurting her like the team had hurt Bowser.

While Junior did his best to restrain the medabot, Link continued after the Siren in order to try and stem the tide of healing that was rolling in. This time she was ready, and with a harsh blow of her conch unleashed a Pressure Crash. The foul magic slapped Link like a breaking wave, dealing damage not to his body but his mental state, in hopes that the hero would be forestalled long enough for Blazermate to heal the Siren back to full as she fought with all her might against Junior’s tether. The pressure wave struck him, sending him swaying back as the vibrations compounded the trembling of his mind and blood was pushed from the bite wounds across his body. Shaking his head, he took another step forward.

Blazermate struggled in her chains, trying to fly with no avail. She had already used basically all of her abilities before, so there wasn’t too much she could do other than call her murlocs to her side, mutating them with her suffering shield to be much larger, and more dangerous, aquatic zombie fish men with odd protrusions everywhere, one of them becoming less of a murloc, and more like an eldritch horror. Her shield, in an attempt to get free, then did something she hadn’t used it for before, letting out a loud scream that hurt the ears of anyone nearby. The worst hit by this was Link, who was buffeted and brought to a halt as Blazermate echoed her new allies' attack.. Her murlocs seemed unaffected, but just stood there waiting for a command. Eventually one came, as they all began to charge Jr.

”Two can play at that game! Murlock marines, counter charge!” Jr commanded, bringing out a swarm of murlock strikers that, as commanded, rushed their undead kin for some fish on fish fighting action. Added to Jr’s side of things was Mimi, who, unable to really help with the pulling, instead snuck her shadow down into the drawl and used it to swipe away at unsuspecting zombilocs.

Link shook off his daze and, looking back at the Murloc battle, took a moment to think. Blazermate had been successfully yanked out of healing range, and the minions she sent at Junior meant they weren't harassing Peach anymore. Bowser was down, which he didn't understand at all and the sight of it sent another wave of trembles through his mind. One crab bodyguard was down already, but when Junior’s striker army vanished he was going to get dogpiled by Murlocs and they would be down two. He checked his hand. Three minutes left.

He broke off his pursuit of the Siren and turned to head for Junior, steel sword in hand. As the mutant murlocs of Blazermate focused on the enemy in front of them his sword flashed and Link spun into their backline, unleashing a sweeping cleave through their undead flesh, before setting to work on the little beasts. As he fought his hand shot out, taking the chain of the talking hook in hand and yanking it down with his new muscles.

Blazermate wasn’t too worried about her murlocs getting cut down by the enemy team, after all, she could just make more of them. But this did limit the amount of shields in front of her, and her current allies were kind of poor shields and looking at the battlefield again her team was starting to get extremely outnumbered. Things weren’t going so well, she couldn’t move in this chain, her allies weren’t letting her out nor coming near her to get healed… It was almost like this team wasn’t her actual team, they functioned like a low rank not even ameture medabot team! Blazermate mumbled about her situation while she was trying to break free of her chains.

While her allies fought to get the murloc squad out of the picture, Peach continued her battle against the Uca Champion solo. As if it sensed her intense desire to get around it and start whittling the Siren back down, the behemoth obstructed her at every turn, scuttling back and forth to intercept her grenades and scatterblasts while the wily Siren kept wriggling behind it. She couldn’t change her momentum as fast as it could, and though Peach saw her damage visible accumulate across the Uca’s flesh and shell, she doubted she’d be able to chew through it with enough time to spare. It was infuriating, and to make matters worse she couldn’t goad the two away from the shore into the water where she’d have the mobility advantage, despite her best efforts. The seconds drained away like so much sand in an hourglass, growing ever closer to bottoming out. It became harder and harder for Peach to keep her screams of frustration internal. They’d gotten so close, until Blazermate went undid everyone’s hard work. The fact that it wasn’t the Medabot’s fault just made it harder to deal with. After coming away bloody from another failed strafing run she backed off, trying to think. If only this wretched crustacean wasn’t so bulky.

Wait. She was being a fool. So far she’d been targeting its head, reasoning that the classic weak spot held true for all beasts, great and small. But now that she looked at the Uca all over, all that bulk was being supported by those four little legs. They allowed the creature to scuttle around with surprising agility, but how strong could they possibly be? Peach dropped a torpedo into the water, then approached once more. She waited until the explosive struck one the monster’s knees before unleashing a scatterboom shot into the same joint at close range. The Princess took a knife slash below her collarbone for her efforts, but as the giant crab’s leg fell into the water and it rocked unsteadily, she knew she’d made the right choice. Trying to ignore the bleeding, she retreated and prepared to go again.

She might not have to, as Bowser moved into her peripheral vision as she fell back. The Koopa had a noticeably cracked scale on his forehead and scratches on his lower body inherited from his strikers, but though winded and not likely to be doing any more jumping around for the foreseeable future, he’d picked himself up and gotten back in the fight.

”I got this Princess” he told her in a strained voice, before gesturing to the crab monster with his scissors and telling it ”First you, then your witch of a friend!” The king wasn't smart enough to pick up on what Peach had been doing, but he did have a trick for this kind of thing up his sleeve. First brought his cannons to bear and pumped a spray of armor consuming acid all over the crab like beast.

Then he growled ”That should soften you up a bit, now eat this!'' at it while stomping in closer and trying to stab the oversized scissors into any cracks he could find in it’s armor, while using his mecah mit shield and the shell armor of his turrets to try and block any retaliation coming in from those big meaty claws. If he did get a good stab in he’d try using the blades in the opposite way from intended, trying to pull the handles/blades apart in order to use the backs of the blades to pry open its shell to expose the meat inside for roasting. His efforts bore immediate fruit; with the Uca softened up both its earlier injuries and the acid, and Bowser susceptible to neither its daggers nor blunt force, it could only delay the inevitable. This was a monster best suited for fighting men–not creatures still more dreadful than itself. Bowser doggedly pushed through its attacks to lay the hurting down, and soon the air was filled with myriad crackles and sizzles as the Uca Champion met its match.

”Dad’s ok!” Jr cheered as he saw Bowser rejoin the fight, before noting how beat up and tired his old man was and adding ”Well. Kinda ok” and then shouting ”Hurry up and snap out of it so you can heal papa, you dumb bot!” at Blazermate.

The prince himself could likely do with a touch up too, because while his murlocs were in the midst of taking down the last undead ones, with a fair bit of help from Link and a touch from Mimi, it hadn’t been a bloodless victory on their side. Light marks of battle had scratched and battered the boy, despite him not being personally touched by the conflict, attested to that. Not that that stopped him sending out more minions to help their cause.

”Primid party! Go gut that fish while we’ve got her buddies busy!” he commanded, summoning a team of the subspace army’s foot troops, all geared up with crude beam swords.

They charged forwards under/past blazermate and to attack the siren herself, some doing spinning dash attacks to close the last bit of the gap while others hopped over the heads of their fellows and used wide overhead slashes to try and cut her upper torso.

Link tried to back up the primid assault by pulling out his bow and firing off some arrows at the Siren, the chain he had grabbed now wrapped around his arm to keep Blazermate from returning to her side even after the koopa troopas vanished. The medabot’s jet-powered struggle against his grip, however, tugged on his limb to such a degree that the hero couldn’t aim for the life of him. She summoned the Engineer to run at her captor with his shotgun upheld, intent on pumping Link full of buckshot. He brought up his shield to try and defend himself, the shotgun blasting ragged holes in the wood and stray buckshot piercing his body.

Still, it was a bad time to be the Siren. Once she found herself mobbed, slashed and hacked at by Junior’s gang of primids, she hurried to summon more backup for herself. Fresh murlocs sprang from the water to fight on her behalf, their fishbone weapons doing the damage that she herself could not. The wounds dealt to the Primids manifested as little more than scratches and punctures on Junior himself, and though her Devour and Pressure Crash struck the whole squad at once, neither packed the punch she needed. The assault kept the Siren’s focus toward the shore, perhaps assuming that her Uca Champion would protect her, but with Bowser overwhelming it bit by bit nothing stood in Peach’s way any longer. With a cry the princess cruised in to deliver a close-range scatterboom blast, delaying the trigger pull until the predictable pelagic reflexively dodged to the side. Then her weapon blazed forth, punching an array of fiery holes into the monster’s back and side.

A shriek resounded through the cave. Burned and bleeding, the Siren turned in a flurry of summoned tentacles to strike back, but Peach stood firm as she hurled her last Grenaduck. The princess took a snaggle-toothed beating, but her explosive sailed on through. It bounced off the Siren and exploded in her face, cracking the conch shell the pelagic held so dear. All the while, the Siren was open from the front to anyone who could brave the murloc swarm.

And as the Siren reeled back, Blazermate’s mind control expired, the Medabot stopping her resistance to Link holding onto her chains and swapping her healing beam back on her real team. Some were hurt, others were worse than others, but overall they were doing far better than that Siren. She took her time healing everyone who needed it, building that wonderful, wonderful ubercharge, ready to hit someone with a Kritz, well, whoever charged through that murloc horde…

”Oh sweet, you're back!” Jr cheered ”Hook let her go!”

“On it boss. Please remember to rate 5-5 stars on [error no net connection]” the sentient meat hook replied chipperly as it unreeled it's chain enough to slip off of blazermate and then quickly reeled back to the prince’s clown car.

The prince then took back to the skies using the vehicle, which meant he didn’t even need to brave the swarm to get in on the action, leaving Link as the best and only option for Blazermate’s support, as Bowser was presently in the middle of shoving the Uca to the ground and stomping its broken and burnt body into crab paste to make sure it wasn’t going to get in the other’s way.

As his dad finished off that beast, Jr flew to help finish off the main event. Up and up he went, making sure he was clear of the murlocs, at which point he summoned the quartet of chef bros. The culinary combatants hung off the side of his clown car with one hand while started pelting the murlocs with pots and pans using the other Meanwhile Jr and mimi joined in by raining down balls of fire and lightning respectively, all of this to help clear the way for one critically empowered hero of the wilds so he could do as heroes do and strike true win the day.

Link held up a hand as small wounds on his body began to close up all over his body under the ministrations of Blazermates beam. “That’s enough. Wait to see who she ensnares next.” With that he took off, charging into the horde of Murlocs and swinging his sword wide to try and sweep them away from the Princess. “Fall back!” He said as he continued forward, trying to cut his way through the horde to get at the Siren.

”Once we figure out who gets mind controlled, a nice push with a few buffs should finish the job!” Blazermate said, keeping her healing beam on the advancing Link. Hopefully she didn’t control someone who would be difficult to deal with like Bowser again so Blazermate could help someone finish this fight.

With Blazermate undoing the damage inflicted by both lucky murlocs and Junior’s widespread bombardment Link carved through the rabble like wheat during a harvest, barely even slowing down as he bore down on his prize. At the same time, Peach continued her assault from the water in a frenzy of red-hot buckshot and miniature torpedoes. Despite her wounds, the SIren managed to dodge a good chunk of damage, and though the hero of the wild would soon be upon her she had one final swan song left to play. The creature lifted her cracked conch to her lips and began to play. “She’s-!” Peach cried, but suddenly the words wouldn’t come. She knew she needed to charge in and stop the Song of Desire, but all of a sudden she found herself quite unable to. A piercing, unnatural sensation flooded her senses.

”Oh no you dont!'' Bowser roared from where standing over the spirit of the Uca. Then he exhaled shallowly before breathing in deep and using his vacuum breath, creating a vortex of air directed at the siren and her conch, the king trying to use unrelenting suction to rip the implement from her fishy grip.

His efforts paid off, as the shell flew from the pelagic horror’s clammy grip and straight into the Koopa King’s wide-open gullet. His shout of jubilation mixed with coughs and chokes as the eldritch essence inside the foreign object disagreed with him, but the fact of the matter remained that the hated Siren now stood without a weapon with which to channel her oceanic magicks. When he looked to Peach, however, he found glassy blue eyes staring his way beneath brows furrowed in anger, and a tight grip on her trusty scatterboom as she began to pick up speed–the charm that had befallen her quite indifferent of the catalyst used to cast it, or likely the Siren herself, for that matter. The team would have to deal with her, one way or another.

As far as Link was concerned the source of the charm spell that turned ally against ally was right in front of him. The third time was the charm, he closed with the Siren again and unleashed another mighty blow with his ebony axe. Seeing that her little channel thing was now on Peach, who frankly wasn’t nearly the offensive powerhouse of Bowser, Blazermate hit the Kritz, amping up Link’s damage quite a bit. She did make sure to keep an eye on Peach though, just in case that mind control caused some… self sacrifice issues that Blazermate would have to interfere with. “HYAAAAAA!” Link bellowed as he brought the axe down, energy sparking around him.

Peach moved to do something, and with startling unity the remaining murlocs rushed their master’s way, but it was too late. The Siren failed to evade in time, and Link’s axeblade fell upon her wretched head like an executioner’s guillotine. On its own it would have spelled out a death sentence, but with Blazermate’s uncannily well-timed Kritz pushing the hero beyond his limits, his weapon cleaved through warped flesh as if it were butter. He split the Siren in twain with such swiftness that she couldn’t even shriek; the only sound she made was the gurgling hiss of gases escaping ruptured organs as her gooey halves split apart, and began to dissolve. In the gunk lay the heroes’ prize, one of the three spirits the Master Hand demanded in order to forestall the Seekers’ doom.

The moment of victory was, however, short lived. A vengeful cry tore itself free from Peach’s lips, and the princess charged her former allies with her scatterboom in hand. It would be some time before she, like the others, freed herself of the charm’s eldritch control. Time, however, was not on the heroes’ side. A minute and thirty-five seconds remained to them.

Link reached down and scooped the Siren’s spirit from the gunk and ash slurry it had landed in before looking up. “Junior!” He yelled, rearing back and tossing their prize up to the Prince. “Go!”

”I got it, I got it!” Jr called back, swooping down and snatching the spirit out of the air, and then continuing onwards in the downloads dive till he was low to the ground, whereupon he deployed his car’s kart wheels and raced back towards the start line. Perched on his shoulder Mimi was ready turned to face the murloc remnants, ready to cover his retreat double dash style.

The prince’s actual doubles partner for that particular tournament meanwhile got no relief from the Siren’s death, as her conch, severed from her spirit, did not go down with her. Instead it would be up to bowser’s Goombules and other oddly koopa troop minion shaped internal defences to fight of that eldritch implement’s lingering corruption. ”Grah, bleh, urg that’s a rotten meal'' was what he had to say on the matter.

Still, a bit of indigestion wasn't going to keep the king down, especially when he had a very familiar job to do. He cracked his knuckles and declared”Alright princess, your coming with me!'' then paused for a moment and added ”Till you feel better'' and then realized she was running away and shouted ”Hey wait come back here!'' before taking off after her.

Shield up, Link closed in on the Princess from the opposite direction. There was no weapon in his hand, the battle axe shattering into pieces and vanishing in the aftermath of the killing stroke. He didn't arm himself with any replacement. She would come to her senses in time if they were just able to restrain her.

While Link and Bowser were trying to be a bit more tender with Peach, Blazermate wasn’t going to deal with this sort of stuff with time running out and while Link approached a bit more cautiously to grab her, Blazermate soared over everyone and went to pin Peach to the ground face down so she wouldn’t do anything stupid while waiting for either Bowser to come around and help as he was want to do, or until her mind control wore off. ”We don’t have time for this!” Blazermate said, zooming in to hold Peach down, blocking her reactionary shotgun blast with her suffering shield which wasn’t a fan of being shot at all, before making her move to pin the princess down.

As Junior fled, his teammates converged on the rogue princess. She fought back with everything at her disposal, including a surprise parry from Chao Ho’s fan, but though nobody escaped unscathed, she could only do so much once everyone’s dogpile robbed her of her weapons. Neither could she get a grasp on anyone long enough to draw out their spirits.

Eventually after much wrangling the princess had been put into a familiar position, namely hauled over Bowser’s shoulder, although with the added addition of tendrils binding her to prevent her from using her newly acquired weapons and powers.

”You know, usually this isn't as much of a hassle'' he informed the others before telling Peach ”Alright princess, you sit tight while we catch up with Jr'' and then directing the gang back towards the entrance, following in the wake of the racing prince.

Paralyzed by the intimidation that emanated out from the Abyssal Sun Princess alongside the crimson luster from her blacksteel halo, Bella did not anticipate for a second that her friend Sakura would round on her in incredulity and indignation. Her utterly affronted look distracted the Seaplane Tender, even if just for a moment, from the fearsome array of opponents that awaited her, but it took the gentle hand that clasped Bella’s own to break her free from her fear. Her pale cheeks reddened as she realized how foolish she must look, not to mention defeatist. Sakura was right, of course. In front of her stood a human, cute little cat ears notwithstanding, whose physical might and martial prowess allowed her to go toe to toe with powerful Abyssals the moment she first set foot on the water. She could push experienced fighters like Karin to the limit, take on gigantic sea monsters like Scylla, and beat down loathsome denizens of the deep, all with scarcely more than her bare hands. Bella liked to think she wasn’t exactly helpless either, and with the reinforcement of both Kamek and Rika to boot, the situation suddenly didn’t seem quite so dire. The Water Princess smiled, grateful for the shining heart that once again reached her even through the murky deep of her own mind. Sakura had smiled back, also feeling a little silly for snapping. She’d have to apologize later.

Then out of nowhere, Sakura abruptly grew in size. She shot up to around one hundred and fifty percent of her usual height, which was enough to tower over a very surprised Bella, who watched in bewilderment as a green-tinged fire wove into a makeshift martial arts uniform over her customary sailor fuku. "W-woah! What the-?" Sakura shouted in surprise. "This is amazing!" She pumped her arms and sprinted ahead, taller even than Zangief!

Luckily things clicked fast, both for the target of Kamek’s magic and her admirer, and with their star player powered up the five turned to begin the fight in earnest. Whether one, three, or ten Abyssals, it ultimately made no difference–in a terrifyingly literal sense, this was do or die.

Sakura leaped into action first, with Bella close behind, running onto the water as fast as her comparatively short legs could carry her. As the wildly cackling Spinal sprinted across the high ground toward the cool-headed Pacific Princess, who fluidly rose and made ready her spear to receive him, the street fighter followed along on a strafing run toward New Southern. Her cannons blazed, but the masked Abyssal shrugged off Sakura’s opening salvo before her return fire proved who wielded the superior caliber. Sakura managed to block a few shots but had neither the speed or room to evade the barrage forever. New Southern’s shells both dealt notable chip damage and guard broke her, putting the martial artist in too much blockstun to launch a counterattack. Sakura groaned, holding her bruising forearm. Even at nearly eight feet, the guns were too big for her to push through. She was getting zoned out, big time! Sakura couldn’t just brute force it.

The assault revealed the truth behind Rika’s words, speeding both her and Bella on their way to lend a hand. While their true target could be none other than the Abyssal Sun Princess, her escort would not allow her enemies to so much as lay a hand on her while they lived, so unless a chance presented itself they needed to eliminate the spearfighters first. To that end the turncoats attacked together, with a barrage of gunfire from Rika that Bella punctuated with a destructive railgun blast. The maneuver forced New Southern to block with her crab claws, alleviating the pressure on Sakura, but as her defenses lowered the Abyssal giggled. Around her buzzed aircraft sent by the Sun Princess to back her up, ready to dive-bomb or bodyblock her foes. “So you’re down for some fisticuffs after all, sisters?” Her eyes gleamed as she activated her Abyssal Radar, tracking her attackers’ every move. “Hahahah! This’ll be fun!”

"No it won’t!" Sakura said, releasing a heavily charged fireball. She hadn’t used the time Rika and Bella bought to push in immediately, but instead increased her chances to make her assault all the more impactful when it did arrive. A blue hadoken traveled a little slower than Sakura’s sprinting pace, the blue fireball floating dangerously through the air. Sakura kept pace with it, using it as cover. She shot a few aircraft out of the air, and smacked them with high kicks if they got too close. But her main goal was to lure New Southern into blocking her big fireball and then grabbing her crab claw, jostling for position and leverage to start breaking it.

At the same time, Spinal engaged the Pacific Princess in combat. He began with a reckless charging attack that his foe interrupted with a quick stab, linking into a hook strike to reel him in. In quick succession she delivered an overhead then sweeping slash, then a double blast from the mini-cannons on her weapon’s butt. Spinal recovered and brought up his writhing octopus shield to block her attacks, managing to fend off her lows and stand in time to not get opened up by a hop thrust. Before she could recover he slid low and pounded her shin with his boot, which allowed him to rise with a slash-slash linker into a spectral skull blast from his shield. He then disappeared into a green portal on the floor for the mixup and shot up directly behind the Pacific Princess, only to be bashed in the jaw by the butt of her lance. “Trivial,” she snarked, her eyes narrowed. Spinal’s opponent had chosen patience over a rushed reversal and been rewarded. She hacked once at his ribcage, kicked him back, then dipped sideways to avoid an Energy Ball from his Dhelmise, revealing that the savvy spearfighter had been keeping tabs on his Pokemon the whole time. Still, Spinal came away shortling–even if he started off on the back foot, this fight was just getting started.

While Kamek himself was unable to cast any new magics, focusing as he was on Sakura’s titanification, his pre-summoned minions did what they could to help. Swooping to and fro above and behind the knife fighting ladies and skeleton, his clones rendered aid, the white directing its wand towards the jaw bashed Spinal, pumping restorative energy into the skeleton and smoothing away the harm done to his ribs, bits of bone reforming in the blink of an eye.

Meanwhile the greens prepared to cycle out their next set of buffs and for that chose Rika both because of sentimentality and the to prop up the weakest link in the quartet of fighters. While running after Sakura she found herself accelerating as power flooded her body and visually caused her glowing blue eye to flip to green. Her guns’ barrels, her bayonet and her horn all burst alight with a dark green flame while her skin was covered in a layer of translucent scales and a spiked shell shon over the machinery on her back.

“Oh sweet! Thank’s Kamek!” she shouted back to the mage before making use of the other help he was providing by telling the Toadies to “tackle the bombers! They can’t deal with other air stuff. Probably”

That was what she hoped anyway, as the 4 propeller powered oddballs made more for baby kidnapping than combat buzzed forwards, the shadowy power rolling off of them thanks to magic tapped from Cia’s spirit maybe giving them the edge they needed to kidnap the ball and disk shaped aircraft instead. With them went her two scout planes, racing in to dogfight while Rika herself move to the side and, unable to shoot into the melee Sakura was engaging in for fear of hitting her, swung her guns around and aimed at the Pacific Princess who had conveniently knocked her foe away, leaving her open to fire from Rika. The ship girl launched a wide volley of six small and one big cannon shot along with a burst of mg fire to boot at the princess, all of her fire trailing green fire like tracers and coursing with venom. She spread her shots out to try and avoid her fire being simply evaded by her foe like the ghost pokemon’s single shot had.

The report of gunfire drew the attention of the Pacific Princess, who frowned as she turned to face the powered-up traitor. In her dexterous hands her spear became a blur, spun at high speed like a vertical helicopter blade to intercept the fusillade that Rika sent her way. Her defense was magnificent, but not foolproof, and enough shots managed to break through to leave the spearfighter burned, lacerated, and poisoned. A moment later her display came to an abrupt end when Dhelmise unleashed its Anchor Shot, trapping her polearm in its chain and nearly yanking it from her grasp. Spinal took the opportunity to run in once more, endangering himself -and given his status as gleaming, Rika- if the young Abyssal did not cut off her barrage. The pirate attacked without reserve, going for broke with ruthless hacks and slashes, unaware that his foe wasn’t quite as helpless as he thought. She maneuvered his Pokemon’s chain into the path of his sword again and again to stop it short biding her time until certain preparations were made.

Out of nowhere her other hand closed tight on the chain, and the Pacific Princess gave it a powerful yank. “Now,” she ordered, and as the Dhelmise jerked closer, her ghostly leviathan exploded out from the water behind her. Its massive jaws snapped shut on the well-position Pokemon as it soared over the stone bridge in a majestic arc. Then it’s beluga-white bulk crashed into the water right where Rika waited, with the ensuing wave strong enough to sweep the girl away even if she avoided a direct hit. Her saving grace where the toadies who, having been unable to catch the bombers she’d sent them after, returned to her side just in time to swoop in and lift her, both out of harm’s way and up above the wave.

Meanwhile, New Southern watched Sakura’s huge hadoken speed closer and closer, her Abyssal Radar fixated both on the street fighter and her partner Bella. The Seaplane Tender circled around to the right, shooting with her cannon gauntlets until she could get close enough to slug her. This was a classic pincer maneuver, and one that New Southern wanted no part of. “Later, losers!” With a pompous flip of her hair the Abyssal commanded her mount to dive, and dutifully the monstrous arthropod slipped under.

”Na-" Sakura began, baffled.

Though Sakura held off the bombers without issue, her fireball hit nothing, and Bella came to a stop with her eyes on the water, searching for any trace of her foe. “See zat, cher ami? She’s too slow to dodge, so she goes under if cornered,” the Seaplane Tender observed.

Sakura grumbled, cracking her knuckles. "Guess I’ll just have to be faster."

A moment later New Southern reappeared, surfacing a ways off. Bella sneered as she turned tail, allowing her leviathan to take aim. Her opponent rolled her eyes and lifted a crab claw to block the railgun shot, but Bella adjusted her aim and fired at the ceiling instead. With a thunderous crack chunks of the cavern roof began to fall. New Southern sighed, and as her red eyes flashed green she went to work with her lance. The weapon became a blur as she went ham, her Abyssal Radar allowing her to perceive every piece of stone that came her way and deflect each one with remarkable precision. Still, she was occupied either way, giving Sakura a chance to approach and Bella a chance to target the real enemy. Her tail locked onto the Sun Princess, gathering its power, and after a brief gulp Bella let loose. In response a fleet of the Abyssal’s small black hovercraft clustered together to intercept the railgun shot, and though they disappeared in a burst of fiery force their mistress went unharmed. By that time, New Southern had speared the last chunk of debris that fell toward her, and as her cannons took aim she sent the rock flying Sakura’s way.

Sakura went aggressive. ”Here I come!" She long jumped clean over the projectile almost before it was even fired. This was a special long jump, and she arched her back and lifted her fists over her head as she soared toward the enemy princess, preparing to slam her double-fisted hammer punch down on her head. Unprepared for such a daring maneuver, New Southern did not rise from her reclining seat, but unleashed her cannon batteries to shoot the girl down while she angled her spear for her opponent to impale herself on. Unfortunately for her, Sakura cruised in faster than the Abyssal’s armements could track her, and managed to squeak past her lagging spearpoint with nothing more substantial than a torn skirt.

The street fighter’s Sakura Otoshi struck home, but rather than pound New Southern down it knocked her up and back, clear off her mount, allowing Sakura to land a second and third as both flew higher and higher. "Ichi-ni-san!” Taken totally by surprise, the Abyssal could do little more than try to mitigate the onslaught. When the attack wound down, she blocked in the air, determined to get back to her mount at any cost.

”Once more with power Miss Bella!” Kamek shouted from the back, before his clones directed their power to the seaplane tender princess, empowering her speed, defense and most importantly attack power, flames licking her tail cannon’s mouth.

“And support” called down the now airship girl Rika as she hovered above the water, supported by the team of toadies. She might not be able to help either melee fighter safely, but vs a swarm of planes? She had the volume of fire the one gun wonder woman lacked, and here she need not worry about friendly fire, allowing her to really open up on the plane swarm from above.

While she kept the Sun Princess’s airships from interfering in either fight, Bella decided to put Kamek’s sorcerous blessing to good use. New Southern being parted from her mount was the heroines’ best chance to take her out, cutting short what would otherwise be an unacceptably drawn-out fight. Full of vigor, she came to a stop in a spray of seawater, spinning as she did to face her back to New Southern. Bella tilted her head to look over her shoulder, the disdainful eyes that peered through her new ringlets bright with intent. “We’ve wasted enough time on the likes of you,” she declared to New Southern as a locus power gathered in the maw of her leviathan tail, giving off enough air pressure to whip her black scarf and blonde curls in the sudden wind. The vibrations made the water around her ripple at high frequency, like a ridiculously overtuned wave pool. Bella held back the burgeoning power just long enough for her savior to launch their opponent clear.

Sakura clenched her fists. Do or die time. She dashed forward, rushing New Southern to close the short distance between them. Being much taller than New Southern without her mount had it’s advantages. Sakura grabbed New Southern roughly by the shoulder. Then she turned away from New Southern, planted both of her overlarge sneakers on her chest, and push-kicked her hard. The two women would get sent flying apart from each other, though Sakura would be landing easily on her feet, and New Southern smack against a nearby wall.

”Come on. You can do it” Kamek muttered to himself with crossed fingers, while above Rika shouted “end her, with time to spare!” while blazing with all her guns while her little scout planes swooped about above, their little cannons chipping away at the bombarded bomber swarm.

Bella needed no further encouragement. Before the stunned -and extremely indignant- New Southern Battleship Princess could fall back toward her precious water, she unleashed her hypercharged railgun in one withering burst. There was no travel time at all; just a blinding flash of light as the magnetically-propelled payload slammed into the Abyssal in a paroxysm of destruction. The entire cave rumbled, a miniature tsunami racing away from the impact point, and enormous chunks of rock fell loose from the crater on the cavern wall. From deep within the stone fissure where the impact had driven her, the upper third of New Southern clung to life for only a moment longer, then with a sigh of absolute annoyance gave up the ghost. Her spirit dribbled out of the crack and drifted toward the water below.

”Oh, man.” Sakura said, perturbed. Glancing over at her friends, she nodded resolutely to herself, as if to confirm her own commitment to the cause.

Bella’s brow was furrowed, and not just for the loss of her sister Abyssal. “I…am sorry. We do not have the time to take chances.”

The victors turned their attention elsewhere. With one enemy down and the other occupied, the path to the Abyssal Sun Princess was clear, so long as one could weave past the leftover bombers and hovercraft. The Pacific Princess recognized it too, so without a second to mourn her fallen comrade, she leaped into action. With a duelist’s grace she ducked backward out of the way of Spinal’s slice, then shouldered and fired the cannon on the butt of her polearm. It rattled her opponent long enough for her to insert her speartip between his ribs, then wrench him up and off his feet to drive him into the ground between her and the Sun Princess. Then she brought her heel down on his skull in a cold-blooded stomp, crunching through bone, and took off at a sprint toward her commander. “Stop them,” she bid her albino assistant, and from the water the abominable thing rose to obstruct her path. As she rounded the corner onto the main seastack, however, a green circle appeared before her. Spinal popped up from it, his jaw dangling off his face, and launched himself downward in a dive kick. His boot struck Pacific’s stomach as her spear sank into his eye socket, but the pirate’s momentum took both over the edge, even as it drove the point deeper into his skull. They splashed down into the water to the tune of Spiral’s cackling, and not a further sound was heard.

”Blast,” Kamek cursed as his minions swooped in too late to aid the skeletal fighter. The medic, who had never left that battlefield after healing Spinal the first time, hovered above the water for a few moments, magical mind whirring as it kept trying to spot the brutalized bone man, but the green’s attention returned swiftly to the trio of ladies. Not that they had anyone left to aid (of any worth anyway, their powers would be wasted on the other non attacking minions) and Kamek was unable to change their function without dropping Sakura’s enlargement, which she could still make use of. Then he had an idea, which he swiftly shouted over to Rika.

“Wha.. oh. Ok?” was her reply, the girl a touch shaken by the loss of Spinal, even if he had just kind of randomly appeared and not done anything but fight, before swiftly setting his plan into motion. The girl lighty punched and headbutted one of the green clones, smearing it in her explosive Brachydios slime while the other two cast haste and defensive buffs on it, turning it into an improvised explosive missile that prepared to surge forwards ahead of the team to either clear the way of bombers or kamakaze right into the Abyssal Sun Princess.

Sakura didn’t want to waste her own enlargement, any of Kamek’s energy, or the madman Spinal’s sacrifice, so once on solid ground she sprinted across the battlefield to reach Abyssal Sun. Sneakers pounding against the stone, she rushed behind the clone, not quite sure what it was going to do. Either way she wanted to close the distance between her and Abyssal Sun, so began firing her cannons at bombers and fighters nearby as she ran to help clear a path. At the same time Bella took the low road across the water, flanked by her own escort of sea planes. Pacific’s monster waylaid her as planned, delaying her arrival, but it kept the heat off Sakura as she grew closer to her target.

The explosive clone’s approach forced the enemy commander to defend herself, drawing up a veil of hovercraft to tank the explosion for her. Their crumpled, burnt shells clattered to the stone around her, leaving her exposed. All around raged the chaos of an airborne battle in miniature, (and one major as Rika flew in via toadie propeller, bayonet stabbing, hull blade slashing and gunfire blasting) but for a brief moment a path was open.

Heart pounding, the giant Sakura flinched and kept her head low as her allies engaged in a terrific dogfight all around her. Careful approaches didn’t feel like an option. Predicting that Abyssal Sun Princess would be the toughest yet, Sakura figured she would open up strong.

"Daaagh!” She roared, fired up. Her body flashed bright yellow and she flew through the air in a similar pose as she did before. An EX Sakura Otoishi, where Sakura flung herself at her enemy like a rocket. Unlike before, where a hit would launch them both higher, this slam dunk of a hit would knock a fellow street fighter on their ass, and would give Sakura the advantage even when blocked.

At Sakura’s approach the Sun Princess kept her composure, her answer no more involved a movement than a dismissive wave of her hand, as if brushing open a silken curtain. The gesture cast no spell, however, and no more hovercraft orbited her for protection, so nothing arose to challenge the girl as she hurtled closer–nothing until a giant, muscular arm cannoned out from its hiding place behind the Abyssal’s elegant sleeve and smashed Sakura right in the stomach. With every ounce of air driven from her lungs she sailed backwards, limp as a ragdoll, her cat tail whipping behind her like a flag of surrender.

That, unfortunately, was just the beginning. Just when Sakura came to a stop at the edge of the area, the crab-legged blacksteel monstrosity scuttled up from below. It made a beeline for the Sun Princess and with its mouth deposited something in her hand while Sakura struggled to breath. As the onlookers watched, the Sun Princess enveloped the spirit of New Southern in a lustrous magic, then released it. Ashes swept in like flurries of snow and coalesced around the spirit, rapidly forming a familiar shape. Partway through, there came a noise from the water below, and up through a hole in the stone platform shot the Pacific Princess. She performed a graceful flip and landed as New Southern’s resurrection completed, allowing both to cross their spears in a portentous X in front of their commander. Then they advanced, ready for a final round.

Sakura didn’t look so big anymore as she curled into a ball, hands on her belly. No doubt a large bruise would be forming on the space between her rib cage and her navel. Sputtering, she got one hand beneath her and coughed a great amount of clear liquid out of her mouth and onto the stone below.

Wiping her lips with the back of her glove, New Southern’s revival amazed Sakura.
"M-masaka…” She managed, voice still strained. That must be how the Abyssal fleet continually replenished it’s forces. Sakura was reminded of one of the reasons she Friend Hearted Bella in the first place. ”A second chance.” She said aloud. Pushing herself to her feet, her cat tail straightened out and then curled.

Sakura began running to meet the Princesses in another fight, though she had flown quite the distance from the previous body shot. Gathering another big fireball in between her palms, she unleashed it at the pair with her familiar cry and advanced behind it, letting it shield her advance. This time, she was ready to jump clear over any projectiles thrown her way, instead of blocking or side stepping.

The Princesses split to either side, going around the fireball with lances at the ready. Pacific appeared from the left and just a second later New Southern from the right, with the latter a mite slower thanks to a combination of less practiced physique and miraculous restoration. A war on two fronts faced Sakura, and each threatened her with greater reach than she herself could boast. Splashes from behind and below her informed her of Bella’s continued fight with Pacific’s monstrous companion, ignorant thanks to natural obstruction of her savior’s plight. The Abyssal’s hook spear and cross spear thrust Sakura’s way.

No dice on the fireball connecting, but at least it let her get close. Sakura raised her forearms and defensive energy spark from them as she blocked and deflected the spear stabs. Gritting her teeth, her feet slid backwards on particularly hard blocks. Being experienced in fighting herself, she picked on New Southern’s relative melee weakness. Trying to find a gap in their offensive, she ducked a stab from New Southern and before the Princess could retract her spear, slammed into it with a roundhouse kick from the right. A whiff punish, ideally. One that would hopefully knock the weapon into and obstruct her fellow spearwoman. Then Sakura kept the momentum of her spin and dived in with a roll, before rising with a knee right to New Southern’s jaw. She finished the combo with a firecracker "Shouoken!” that traveled up New Southern’s torso and took them both skyward.

New Southern’s deflected cross spear clanged against Pacific’s own polearm, which prompted a quick shove -as well as annoyed scowl- from the more professional Princess to get her colleague’s weapon back under control. She then went low in an attempt to sweep the legs, but Sakura left them behind of her own accord, and rolled just out of Pacific’s reach–a smart move considering her Shouoken’s lack of invincibility. The uppercut went off without a hitch, carrying Abyssal and shipgirl into the air, but it was there in the middle of the technique’s recovery that Sakura ran into a problem. Before she could safely land, Pacific punished her commitment with a hook slam that brought the street fighter back down onto the ground. "Oof!” As New Southern hit the ground she rolled in the direction of her mount, which aimed its cannons at Sakura while Pacific held her down with her catch pole.

Sakura gasped, realizing she was only moments away from getting sucker punched by a cannon shot. She turned her upper body and pulled herself free of the hook with her arm, though the sharp end would most likely draw some blood as it slid along her skin. Then she erupted from the ground with another EX bar that she had built up. "Midare Zakura!” She spun rapidly, an EX uppercut that was ‘invincible’. Surging forward she aimed to catch New Southern off guard with the first uppercut, and then nail her with the second.

The moment Sakura burst upward without regard for her own bloodshed or the spear that pinned her, Pacific took a half-step away. She managed to avoid the reversal, only to realize that it wasn’t her that her opponent seemed to be targeting, but New Southern instead. “Look out!” she called to alert her ally to the danger, and New Southern turned in time to guard herself against the first hit of Midare Zakura…only to go for a punish and get smacked by the second. “Gah, idiot!” As the unlucky spearfighter got thrown into her own mount, Pacific grit her teeth and moved in. Sakura could prepare herself as well as she liked; with her back turned, she could only do so much. Pacific planted the butt of her spear and pole-vaulted herself into the air for a massive downward crescent slash, then fired the cannons for a burst of momentum that made possible a second horizontal slice. She just managed to twist herself around and land on her feet for the followup, but the only pressure that came was a feinted kick, meant to catch another of the girl’s feisty uppercuts.

While the brawl raged on, the Sun Princess kept herself busy. She resurrected her own hovercraft, raising each a lot faster than she did New Southern, and replenished the ranks that Rika, Bella, and Kamek worked so hard to thin. As the clock ticked down, the heroes’ limits when it came to minions meant that the battle of attrition would soon swing back in the Abyssals’ favor. In particular, the enemy commander sent her hovercraft after Kamek in a bid to cut off Sakura’s empowerment.

Sakura cried out sharply as the spear was slashed down her back, severing the cloth and breaking the skin as a yellow spark cracked into the air. Sakura turned, arms raised, and the horizontal slash caught her across the chest, getting a similar reaction. "Aah!”

As the kick came in, Sakura focused up, emitting a flash of a dark miasma. She prepared to power right through the kick, but no kick came. Instead her Focus Attack, baited out, left her airborne as her knee collided with Pacific’s block. Her eyes went wide as saucers.

The Abyssal neither gloated nor showboated, but made a single practical choice, the height of simplicity. She couched her lance and thrust its bone-white tip into Sakura’s midsection. With cold eyes she stabbed again and again in quick succession, each shallow but painful, keeping the girl in hitsun for a crucial moment. Size and defense bonuses mitigated the damage, but it mounted quickly, until an upward shaft bash finished off the flurry. But as Sakura reeled backward, her momentum carried her right into New Southern’s follow-up. Her cross spear pierced her back and stayed there, holding her long enough for the crab to sweep its giant claw into her legs and drop the street fighter to the ground. Barely had she fallen than six cannon barrels aimed her way on one side, while Pacific prepared to chop down with her catch pole on the other. Sakura found herself in dire straits. In that pivotal moment the stunned girl lay flat on her back, eyelids fluttering, a low moan her only sign of defiance.

At that very moment however, two things happened. The first was that Sakura suddenly shrunk back down to her usual size as Kamek was forced to defend himself from the incoming hovercraft, which made her a softer target but at least made her a smaller one. Then Rika came literally dropping out of the sky crying, “Sakuraaaa!” The ship girl having been tossed by her Toadie carriers and now coming in in an uncontrolled bodyslam of an attempted save, gauntlets and hull blades up in a guard to try and ensure her tackle didn't get a sudden sharp end.

Above, Kamek’s white mage swooped in and waved a pulse of healing magic over the girl, while far behind there came a roaring as a shadow Bowser leapt forwards and crashed onto one of the hovertanks. Kamek himself rose up into the air trying to get clear of the clever clog’s crew of craft sent to cancel his sorcerous size spell.

Sakura put a now normal-sized hand to her bare midsection. Her fingers came away red with her blood, but whatever stab damage her ki couldn’t keep away, Kamek’s burst of healing magic had somewhat tended to. Though no doubt Sakura was still a softened target. Grunting, Sakura pushed herself to her knees. "Rika-chan…”

The commotion provoked an alarmed cry from below. “Sakura?!” There came a disquieting crack followed by the heavy, hollow moan of Pacific’s deep-sea monstrosity. Then, just a couple seconds later, Bella launched herself up from the water like a salmon and over the platform. As she soared she spotted her dear friend, as well as her injury, and the observation galvanized her into drastic measures. With a wordless cry of anguish the Seaplane Tender executed a flip, bringing her leviathan tail down on the spot where Pacific and New Southern -recovered from Rika’s body splash- prepared to do their worst. They barely scattered in time, not just to avoid the powerful impact, but also the unaimed railgun shot Bella pounded the ground with upon landing. Stinging fragments of stone against their enemies’ skin gave the heroes enough time to regroup.

“Are you okay?” Bella demanded, her eyes teary beneath angry brows. “I am so sorry, mon cherie, I didn’t know zat things got bad up here…!”

”I’m okay, I’m okay.” Sakura quickly assured Bella, setting a hand on her shoulder. ”Thank you, Rika-chan. You saved my sorry behind.” She wished Bella would stop crying everytime she got hurt. She offered her friends a little smile before turning her attention back to the situation at hand. Her top had been majorly slashed twice in two separate places, her skirt was torn, and though the skin of her lower torso was bare, the stabs delivered to her midsection and back stained the areas there and ripped the hem. Scuffs and scrapes from various impacts also marked her clothing. But that was the only part of her that was coming apart at the seams.

As they assembled their ranks, Spinal teleported up from below to make the fight five on three. Though seemingly sunk to Davy Jones’ locker, the skeletal pirate clearly had another round left in him. Sakura cheered at his re-arrival. On the other side, Pacific scowled as she hefted her catch pole, and the resurrected New Southern looked distressed despite her best attempts to make herself comfortable on top of her mount. The crab creature’s barrels were in position, and ready to fire. Behind them loomed the Sun Princess, her drones at the ready. Only two minutes remained in which to defeat her and take her spirit back to Master Hand.

”We’ve got this. We can Friend Heart the spearwomen. If they join our team, or even stay out of the fight, we’ll be able to get the Sun Princess. If they don’t, well…” Sakura hesitated. ”I’ve loved fighting for you guys.” Not even a sunny optimist like Sakura could believe that they could beat them twice in two minutes.

“I…” Bella swallowed her words. “Loved it too!”

Now back to her normal cat girl stature, Sakura was ready to take on the Princesses as she normally would. Fighting people smaller than her was something she had no experience with. While she wasn’t as strong and as big as she was a moment ago, she was more agile and had more technique.

”New Southern is weaker with her spear. She’s my first target. Cover me?” Sakura asked. With that, she dashed forward and broke out into a sprint, staring down the deadly cannons of the battleship girl. Thinking back on New Southern’s firing patterns so far, she waited a beat, and then jumped preemptively over the shot she guessed was coming.

“Hey, I heard that!” Looking pissed, New Southern activated her Abyssal Radar, and when Sakura got started she fired not just one but all six cannons. The first few missed, and as she adjusted her aim, Bella came in from the right. A barrage of shots from the Seaplane Tender’s gauntlet emplacements convinced New Southern to move. Her crab scuttled sideways, both to get away from her foes and to block Bella with Sakura. As New Southern prepared to fire again, a handful of the Sun Princess’s hovercraft flew in over her to physically ram the street fighter. Halfway through the assault, Bella ran in to help with her hands outstretched. She snatched up a few of the drones, then hunkered down to block New Southern’s volley while crushing the hovercraft in her grip.

At the same time, Pacific opened her own fight by tossing a handful of torpedoes at the other Seekers. With no water they served as little more than contact bombs, blanketing a wide area in explosions like a cluster grenade. Spinal raised his writhing shield and absorbed the blasts with Power Devour, which granted three green skulls that floated behind him, then charged forward for his rematch. As he sprinted in he spent his skulls to launch spectral artillery against Pacific, keeping her on the defensive long enough for him to arrive. He immediately went for a low shield bash, which Pacific deftly crouched to block, then two scimitar stabs followed by a shield charge. With a leer he stepped forward for a throw, but a walk back from Pacific caused it to whiff, and she then stepped forward for a throw of her own–a shaft launcher into whirling crescent kick to knock him away.

”Strength and speed for you!” Kamek called out a moment before the blow came, directing his two remaining supporters to buff the boney warrior to help him take or avoid the blow. The other bit of aid he got was Rika, circling around as the undead warrior duled the woman. No masterful mistress of melee, the hammer armed destroyer’s strategy was charging in to try and either spear her with her bayonet, or, failing that, just ram her again. Whatever it took to hurt her and be near her to heart her.

While the fighters battled in close quarters, Kamek turned to face the Abyssal Sun Princess and saying to her ”Now then, lets even up these odds a bit shall we, because two can play the summoner’s game” before putting his increased mana regeneration to its full use.

”Dry Bones, rise and rise and rise!
Young masters, take to the skys!
Dark blasts to drown out their cries
Then all will be Quiet as their hope dies!”

He chanted as he rolled out a counter wave of minions to battle the princess’s own. A horde of dry bones tore themselves front he earth and started shambling towards the rival summoner, the skeletal koopas refusing to stay down as they moved to pressure the princess’s position.

After and above them came a trio of shadowy Bowser Juniors who flew at the planes, hucking homing fireballs and using their boxing gloves to try and smack the enemy aircraft out of the air. Along with them was a red clone of Kamek, freshly summoned, who swooshed back and forth trying to drop Cia’s dark energy mines on various hovercraft.

Finally next to a now recovering Kamek came Quiet, one of his strikers, to add some much needed firepower. The sniper knelt down in the water beside the hoovering mage and used her high powered sniper rifle to directly pressure the Sun Princess, hammering shot after shot at her and forcing her to guard herself rather than focus on disrupting the two teams trying to liberate her minions. Still, as a high-power Striker she could get off only so many shots before disappearing again, although that did prevent any counter-offensive against her that might lead to injury for Kamek.

Many of the Sun’s hovercraft were being dealt with by Sakura’s teammates, and the street fighter was intent on reaching New Southern before she could fire any more well aimed shots. Sakura dove just over the first hovercraft, placed her hands on the top of it, and springboarded off of it, slamming it into the stone floor. Front flipping, she landed feet first on another hovercraft, and stomped it beneath her before leaping off of it and getting within melee distance of New Southern with an athletic roll. Coming to a stop, she popped up into the air and went to land on the cannon emplacement itself. ”Sorry, but it’s true!” She said.

New Southern’s Abyssal Radar shone across her eyes, layered atop Galeem’s sunset red, and she made an executive decision. She rose to a crouch atop her mount as Sakura landed, and while the street fighter struggled to keep her balance atop a monstrous crustacean in motion, she perfectly aimed a two handed wallop at her foe to knock her back to a more manageable distance. Bella appeared on her other side at just that moment, but New Southern’s sensors clued her into the threat, and rather than be grabbed by the Seaplane Tender’s metal mitts she twisted around to vault over, using Bella’s head as a handstand. The leviathan tail lunged, but New Southern managed to deliver a kick to its crest hard enough to knock it off course. Bella managed to dodge in time to turn a face-skewer into a glancing blow, opening up the way for Sakura to strike back in the process.

Sakura rubbed her jaw as she skid backwards, and flinched on Bella’s behalf as the Seaplane Tender was nearly skewered through the mouth. Too close. New Southern felt a sudden weighted impact on her back as Sakura leapt onto her. Then she put the New Southern in an ironclad headlock, setting one hand on New Southern’s head and wrapping her other arm around her neck. It was impossible to breathe, and Sakura yanked back suddenly, causing an eye-watering crunch. ”You’ll thank me later!” Sakura promised. ”Sorry about killing you, won’t happen again! Just go to sleep, okay?” The Abyssal struggled, using her radar to land one vicious elbow blow after another, but her attacker wouldn’t be dislodged. Each crunchy squeeze hurt more than the last, until finally her cross spear slid from limp fingers and clattered to the ground, the noise Sakura’s only reply. The street fighter made brief eye contact with her friend Bella, hoping she could keep the big crab claws from interfering.

Bella’s eyes, filled with a mixture of pity and disdain, lingered on New Southern for a moment as her masked face hit the ground, her body slumped in a most undignified fashion. She thought that Sakura broke the enemy Abyssal’s neck on the first go, and a good few more left her fate nebulous at best. Still, whether dead or alive, she needed to go down. This endless seabound war, fed by the cruel and inhumane cycle of death and resurrection at the hands of this callous Sun Princess, needed to end. She wiped her blood from her cheek, gave Sakura her nod of assertion that she could keep the crab monster busy, then bent to the task.

Meanwhile, Pacific had turned on Rika with a vengeance. Long before the lower-level Abyssal could get close enough for a bayonet stab or a tackle, the expert’s catch pole flashed forward. Rather than risk a two-on-one engagement, even from inferior opponents, Pacific pivoted around in an attempt to redirect her attacker’s momentum and send her stumbling toward the edge of the arena. While Pacific then charged at the Dry Bones as they marched on her boss. With powerful sweeps she sent entire rows flying at a time, hampering Kamek’s offensive until Spinal accosted her once more. The pirate attacked with a mixture of normals and launched skulls that got expertly blocked until he let loose an instant overhead in the form of a divekick barely off the ground. On hit he confirmed into Instinct activation, floating in the air for a moment as ghostly green flame enveloped his body. An extra three skulls appeared as he pulled off a brief but solid combo, after which he spent his skulls to fill the air with screaming skull projectiles. Even on block they just bounced off to fly around and home in once again, applying too much pressure to fight back. Next time Rika approached, she would be unhindered.

That, of course, required Rika to be in a position to approche in the first place, and things did not look good on that front at first as the upgraded mook ran headlong into an artful parry which sent her stumbling towards the cliff that had taken Spinal earlier. Now the skeleton had come back, but that didn’t make the drop any less alarming to the shipgirl, who was crying “wowowowowow” as she teetered on the edge, arms flailing. Whether that would have helped or not ended up not muttering as her escort of Toadies swooped in and pulled her back.

“Phew. Too close,” she gasped before calling, “Thanks Kamek!” to the minions’ master. The mage himself gave her a thumbs up as he grinned as he watched Pacific lay into the dry bones, only for Spinal to break off her attention from them, giving those koopa skeletons not utterly scattered time to reform and resume their distracting march.

The skeletal warrior’s assault on Pacific was intense, giving Rika another, better, opportunity to get her own shot in “but smarter this time.” Conscious that Sakura seemed to have subdued rather than freed the other princess, Rika was going to do something similar. “Kamek, send your guys with me, we’re gonna grab her!” she instructed before charging in. No bayonets, hull blades or guns this time, no instead she had her spell armored body and a set of six flying minions with her and together they tried to more or less tackle the princess. Green kamek clones tried to go in first, slamming into her retaliatory blows, and then following them came Rika, who tried to catch the haft of Pacific’s spear in the jaws of her arm cannons and rip it out of her grip. Finally, while Rika fought the princess for possession of her spear, the Toadies swept around and tried to grab one of the princess’s limbs each, finally getting to perform their intended purpose by carrying a kidnapping victim into the air out of reach of friend and foe alike.

Irritated by Rika’s stubborn attempt to disarm her, Pacific landed kick after kick as she strove to wrest control of her catch pole, but her dogged opponent wouldn’t give up the ghost. Still, that suited the greater Abyssal well enough; it was only a matter of time before Rika succumbed, and unlike her opponents, Pacific had all the time in the world. Spinal’s presence complicated things, however, and though the spearfighter could maneuver the less nimble Rika to bodyblock for her, it wasn’t a perfect strategy. Scimitar slices began to accumulate across her limbs, and even a few on her torso and head, but none hurt so much as the indignity of such a stupid plan working. Try as she might, Pacific couldn’t focus long enough to deal with either opponent.

Sakura rubbed her tender midsection after the elbows struck true there. Red and purple bled through her normally light skin. These three really had screwed up her guts. It was increasingly difficult to breathe, and impossible to move painlessly. A few more solid hits there and she’d be down for the count, no doubt about it. She looked at the unconscious New Southern. Undignified indeed- it was an unfortunate truth that when you got laid out, you looked stupid. It was probably the only part about street fighting that Sakura didn’t like. Anyway, Sakura had to secure her victory. She hooked the toes of her sneaker under New Southern’s spear and tossed it up into her hands. With a heavy thud, she implanted the tip into the stone. Producing a pink Friend Heart from her chest, she grabbed New Southern by the shoulder and rolled her onto her back. Then she placed it into New Southern’s heart and grabbed her by the collar with one hand. Finally, Sakura went to pluck the mask off her face so Sakura could really look her in the eye. So that when New Southern woke up, Sakura could demand of her, without a doubt.
”Stay down.” She didn’t have time for a speech. She just needed to make sure New Southern wouldn’t be resurrected at full health as an enemy.

Despite Sakura’s good intentions, the time she took to make sure she had a thorough handle on New Southern ended up coming back to bite her. With both of her bodyguards in trouble, the Abyssal Sun Princess decided to take decisive action. Into both situations she sent her seaplanes, not the hovercraft, but the bombers. The bulbous craft dove like kestrels, swooping down to get as close to their as they could regardless of nearby allies. New Southern awoke to a momentary view of Sakura, alarmed but too dazed to act, before the bombardment began. Although shielded somewhat by her opponent, the pain was such that it shocked her into wakefulness, and with a cry she curled up in an attempt to shield herself from the damage as the force rolled her away. At the same time, the bombers took care of the Toadies that dared lay hands on Pacific, though they also managed to hurt Pacific herself almost as badly. Recognizing the danger, she relinquished her catch pole and attempted to flee. The air filled with gunfire as the Sun Princess commanded her hovercraft to shoot into the chaos, heedless of friendly fire when her grunts were easily replaceable.

Sakura’s fears turned out to be well founded, as the Abyssal Sun would destroy her own allies without a second thought. All because she could bring them back to life. She heard the incoming bomber more than she saw it. As it detonated, the street fighter crouched and braced herself. Her body flashed an inky red miasma this time, and the explosive force dissipated into her, absorbed. The rest was scattered past her. The only downside was the significant amount of ‘gray health’ she temporarily had. A large portion of her durability ki was used up in that attack, and it needed time to come back. And it cost a big chunk of her internal resources. But at least she didn’t get blown to kingdom come.

The street fighter growled, shaking her head rapidly. ”Great, she almost blew us both up.” Sakura said to New Southern. ”Just stay out of this.” She said. ”Okay? Do you hear me?” She implored. Somehow, she needed confirmation that New Southern wasn’t just going to shoot her friends in the back the second Sakura turned to face other threats.

Without her facemask, it was abundantly clear just how done New Southern was with this fight. Whether afforded her full faculties or left numb from the trauma of repetitious death and resurrection, her features held every ounce of her staggering indifference to either her former enemy or former commander. She didn’t so much as look at them, or even her weapon. “Whatever,” she drawled, her tone flippant and dismissive, as she laid her head back down and allowed her lilac-purple eyes to slide shut. Her concession seemed to spark a change in her mount as well, who ceased its standoff with Bella despite its sustained injuries and scuttled over to shield New Southern with its body.

You’re doing the right thing!” Sakura assured the tired abyssal. They were victims of this war, too. Sakura looked to Bella and gave an encouraging peace sign. ”That’s one! Ready? Because we’re about to finish this for good.” She looked to the Abyssal Sun Princess, who Sakura figured was the root cause of the entire war throughout the Edge of the Blue. While they had to kill her in order to progress, Sakura knew she would have had to go either way.

Rika meanwhile suddenly found herself holding a spear in the jaws of her guns, inconveniently blocking them, while bombers contiued to swoop around and hovercraft moved into position to simply mow her and the fleeing princess down. Had she been alone, she might have been royaly screwed, fortunately, she still had some support, mainly because despite the bombers filling the sky, the lack of any fighter craft ment that the troop actually had air speriority.

Dinky as they where, Rika’s two little scout planes were practically fre to hunt down the bombers, swooping to and fro in their swarm like dolphins darting in and out of a shoal of fish, hammering one after the other. Meanwhile, while Kamek’s air force had had losses, those that had fallen were only those in its support elements. Shadow Juniors remained, moving in to cover Rika and unleashing a triple barrage of fireball cannon shots on the bombers coming in blasting some out of the sky while those that did strike found their bombs striking the expendable shadow clones rather than the Rika. One even grabbed Pacific's spear from the ship girl’s cannon jaws and tried to use it to defend her.

The turncoat Abyssal herself, raising her gauntlets into a guard and shifting the hull blades beneath them to make a shield to guard against the hovercrafts’ fire, while her turrets moved behind her and tried to cover her rear by helping the jr clones in their fight against the bombers.

Speaking of the hovercraft, they got their own taste of the very same medicine their flying allies were trying to dish out, as the red clone of Kamek swooped down over the ones trying to fire into Rika’s fight and dropped dark energy mines among their midst, the pulsing bombs detonating in large explosions that blew away several craft in a single detonation if they failed to spread themselves out. As it happened, however, the enemy hovercraft fought more intelligently than Kamek might have hoped, as their spread and flight patterns made it difficult to take out more than one at a time. The numbers advantage wouldn’t be so easily tipped back in the heroes’ favor.

Further back Kamek was directing his minions actions while keeping himself clear of the most intense parts of the fight (acting as something of a mirror to the Sun Princess in that way) and being so far back gave him the overview he needed to spot an opportunity when Rika managed to steal Pacific's spear from her, and decided to enact the exact same plan he’d used on the shipgirl when they’d first met.

”Make that one rest” He commanded, summoning The End and directing him to bring down the princess who had lost her projectile blocking abilities. While the mage got to work creating more clones to replaces his losses, the ancient sniper crouched down, quickly and quietly picked out an appropriate dose for someone of Pacific's size, slotted it in place, and then raised, aimed, and fired the sleeping dart at the retreating princess all in one set of swift precise motions.

Pacific’s ruse went off without a hitch. Who wouldn’t pursue an opponent who turned tail after being disarmed, after all? Yet even deprived of her catch pole, the Abyssal was far from helpless. She twisted around with torpedoes at the ready and hurled them like explosive throwing knives, blasting away Rika and Kamek’s minions alike. As the fiery splendor of destruction blossomed around her, Pacific rushed down the Junior doppelganger that wound up with her spear. A well-aimed turn kick impaled her high heel into the shadow’s eye, and as it faded an upward hook sent her spear flying. Her eyes followed it upward as it spun through the air, ignoring the trio of hovercraft that beelined toward Kamek to fill him with lead, unaware of the timely contingency plan already in motion.

The End’s tranquilizer dart pierced her neck just before her weapon’s shaft landed in her outstretched hand, only for the metal to slip from her grasp. “...Agh! What is…?!” Pacific gasped as she staggered. She yanked out the dart and stared at it, realizing that her vision was swimming. “...No!” With a violent lurch she realized that she’d been drugged, and was seconds away from hitting the deck. Her knees gave out and she fell into a kneeling position, her head lolling downward. She was going to fail. She was going to lose. To these traitors and circus clowns. Pacific grit her teeth, and with the last of her strength took hold of her catch pole. Its butt she pressed against the bottom of her jaw, and she gave the command to fire.

When the thunderous report and acrid gunsmoke faded, Pacific lay slumped on the floor, but her spirit did not rest among the remains of her head for long. Just as she planned, her spirit flew toward the Sun Princess for immediate revival–a pragmatic if macabre way to defy her fate, if allowed to proceed.

”No way!” Sakura shouted in dismay as, despite Kamek and Rika’s best efforts, the Pacific Princess took her own life. If she was revived at full health, could they even win? As terrible as it was, Pacific had made her choice. Sakura sprinted forward towards the Sun princess, firing her cannons at the boss’s face and upper body. Bella followed suit from her closer position, her gauntlet cannons ablaze.

”Curses!” Kamek swore, not having expected something so brutal, while The End simply shook his head sadly before dissipating. Then the mage cursed again as the hovercraft came in, forcing the mage to pivot, summon a shadow Bowser clone to use its spiked back as living cover while he sent a newly formed red clone of himself to help the other one in bombing the blasted contraptions assailing him.

Rika coughed as she unsteadily picked herself up after being blown away by the torpedo barrage. Kamek’s magic armor and her own gauntlet and hull blade guard had lessened the blow, but she’d still been decked her for long enough to stop her from doing anything about Pacific’s suicide.

She wasn't the first Abyssal to fall at their hands however, and so Rika gave in to her rage to overcome her dismay, and channeled it towards the one who was to blame for all of this.

“Die! Die die die die you Whoreson!” she shouted as she followed Sakura’s lead and in her wake, unloading her rage and firepower at the sun princess while marching towards her with the two remaining jr clones did their best to use their remaining vitality to protect her from their foe’s remaining forces.

Three sources of high-caliber gunfire pounded the hastily-erected defenses of the Sun Princess. Although she possessed wealth of bombers and hovercraft, endlessly reanimated to serve at her every whim, even the finest seaplanes the Abyssal Fleet could offer couldn’t win this fight on their own–and they were being destroyed faster than their master could recreate them. Plus, Spinal was only too happy to absorb projectiles with Power Devour, feeding his supply of skulls he could launch back at the Sun Princess to hunt her down. All the bombardment was starting to take its toll, leaving the enemy’s fine clothes burnt bloody, and full of holes. She threw up one of the muscular arms on her rigging to protect her while she tried to resurrect Pacific, but Bella reached her in time.

With a shout she leaped to deliver a flying punch, but when her former boss lashed out with a massive backhand slap, Bella grabbed hold to tank the blow. Her leviathan tail lunged for the spirit of Pacific in its maelstrom of ashes and snagged it out of her enemy’s grasp. “Yes!” she exulted, even as the Sun Princess smashed her big arm into the floor with Bella beneath it. “...Ugh!” She couldn’t keep her tail from gasping along with her, and from its maw Pacific’s spirit flew once more, back toward its would-be reviver. “We can’t keep it away!” she hacked, the air knocked from her lungs. A realization, however, made her eyes wide. “Unless we fuse with it, or something!” Either way, Sakura would be on top of the Sun Princess any second now.

”Do it! Peach can always pull her spirit back out,” Kamek shouted as he took to the air, to join his pair of red clones, who worked together to shoot down the bombers with shadow infused spellfire, while the swarm of drybones piled onto the hovecraft as they tried to form, tearing them down with skeletal claws.

“I’ll try and get her, you all get the sun!” Rika called in response, having to halt her fire anyway lest she hit Sakura, and moving to run at full pelt after the spirit while sending her scout planes to try and body block its progress back towards the sun princess and once she got close enough having the two remaining shadow Jr’s team jump her up and after it. With their help she managed to catch it in time, although if she took anything less than decisive action right that instant, it would slip through her fingers and into her foe’s. If there was one thing that grunts did well, it was follow plans, and so with 0 hesitation the girl pulled in the spirit and pressed it into her chest even as she fell back towards the ground.



As Rika made her play, Sakura finally arrived at the Sun Princess for the second time and engaged her in melee combat. She crouched low and slammed a foot into her knee, before spinning upwards and bringing it back around with a jumping spin kick into her side. ”Shenpu!” The strikes connected, and as Sakura recovered from her spin kick Spinal jumped in to pick up where she left off. He came down with a jumping slash and then low shield bash that managed to restand the Sun Princess still in hitstun, after which a skull blast from his shield kept her occupied just long enough for Sakura to go again, giving her a chance to extend her combo.

Working with Spinal, Sakura moved back in, jabbing at Abyssal Sun before hitting her with another tatsu. ”Shenpu!” She said again, spinning around with another kick. This time she dropped low immediately, not even setting both feet on the ground before kicking low and shooting upwards again, spinning twice with her leg out. ”Shenpukyaku!”

The extra damage from both fighters staggered the Sun Princess, leaving not just bruises, cuts, and clothing damage but also two kinds of spectral skulls floating around her that constantly siphoned her eternal resources, courtesy of Spinal. Like the other masked mastermind before her, the Lady of the Maw, she was beginning to lose her composure. A strained, furious cry exploded from her as she raised both adjunct arms for a brutal overhead smash, but Bella’s tail lunged up to chomp down into her left arm’s wrist. Its teeth pierced the arm’s sinuous flesh, and once it had a hold, the horrific appendage yanked it -and the Sun Princess- sideways. The two Abyssal monstrosities struggled against one another in a vicious tug of war that hurt one a lot more than the other. The Sun Princess found herself in dire straits, beset on all sides and needing to pull out all the stops. As the fighters approached to finish her off, she waved her hand at them to inexpertly release an arc of electricity, a spray of fire, and a shower of ice–an unprecedented but ultimately ineffective last resort.

Sakura held her ground, leaning forward with her shoulder and forearm. Grimacing, her defensive blue ki withstood all three elements, all three of which Sakura had experience withstanding. The force impacted against her defense with mighty, deep thuds, and her sneakers dug into the stone as she was pushed backwards. But at the end of it all, she shoved away the last of the ice and pushed in, followed by a newly arrived and transformed Rika.

With Rika at her back, Sakura felt confident. She weaved in, crossed one arm over her chest, and then slammed her elbow into the Abyssal Sun’s Princess face, like she meant to cram it all the way down her throat. The mask cracked beneath the blow, and her enemy saw stars. Then she Sailor Hopped right over her, kicking the back of her head and sending her stumbling towards Rika, who reeled back an arm and then drove a gauntleted fist into her gut with relish. Third in the conga line came Spinal, who shot the Sun Princess with a skull that replenished enough Shadow for a Shadow Soul Sword, in which he wildly wheeled his cutlass about five times. At that moment the final Abyssal crossed some unseen threshold only Spinal could receive, prompting him to release a maniacal cackle. It was time for a show.

A yellow wave rippled outward from his skeletal body, and the air filled with sound. He unleashed a terrific barrage of attacks in quick succession, a mixture of slashes, bashes, kicks, and ghostly outbursts that each created a haunting musical note on hit. With them came the cheers and cries of an unseen crew to punctuate each especially ruthless blow, sounding out an eerie but vigorous rhythm. Loving every second of it, Spinal waved his cutlass overhead as a pair of skeletal arms erupted from the ground in an X, a literal crossbones, before he ran forward to boot the dizzied Sun Princess in the stomach. As she flew he skeleported beneath her, then let loose a rising shield bash for the finale, with a skull blast that launched her high into the air.

At the apex of her launch, she was met by Sakura, her face cut with grim determination. Expending all of her gathered resources, her body thrummed with power. ”ATTAAACK!” She shouted, floating beside the Sun Princess. Raising her fists over her head, the air split as she brought them down on the Sun’s head. In a split second she went from high into the air to cratered in the ground. Sakura remained suspended in the air, before spinning forward and streaked down after her, wind following in her wake. With a penultimate stomp, she crushed the Sun Princesses’ midsection with immense force, pressing her even further into the stone. She hopped off. ”It’s over.”

“Let’s make sure of zat,” Bella declared, as she and Rika stepped up onto the edge of the crater. Directing all her guns at her former master who had uncaringly thrown her and hundreds like her to their deaths over and over and over, Rika unleashed her fury in a hail of cannonfire, metaphorically and literally holding down the triggers till her ammo was spent. Her barrage only came to an end wehn Bella’s railgun finished charging, at which point the renegade princess put an end to all this with a thundercrack as her main cannon smashed into the princess’s broken body at point blank range, showering them all with dust and ash as, at last, the tyrant of the sun was toppled. Sakura coughed, waving her hand in front of her and coughing. ”Bleugh.”

”Well done ladies… and skeleton” Kamek drifted in to congratulate them as the dust settled, the old koopa having stayed well clear of the carnage rather than risk getting caught in some kind of cross fire or hitting someone with a spell by accident.

”And with more than a minute to spare too” he added, checking the timer. And then checking it again. ”Oh. Odd. It’s still ticking down?”

“Is she not dead?” Bella aske, alarmed, before sending her leviathan tail into the settling dust cloud. When she pulled it back, however, the maw deposited not just one but three spirits into her waiting hands. “Ah non, she is quite dead. Zat is a relief…but why are zere three?!” In addition to spirit of the Abyssal Sun Princess, she held the spirit of a blue-haired, cat-eared white mage, and that of a diminutive but stylish black mage. “Was she fused? Hiding beneath those clothes…?”

Sakura scratched her head, not sure what to make of this. ”I have no idea.”

”I suppose it must be a hidden fusion. I wonder which of her powers came from those. And how she learned how to fuse in the first place, and why she kept it hidden. It is not as if we saw any of her subordinates using that power which seems like a missed opportunity” Kamek said while scratching his chin thoughtfully, before shaking his head and saying ”but that does not solve the conundrum of the countdown’s continuation”

Rika said, before suggesting “Maybe it's just because the big weird hand doesn’t know she’s dead?”

”Oh? Oh dear yes that could well be it. That or perhaps it is because some of the others are still fighting? Either way, here,” the mage reached out and took the Abyssal spirit. ” I’ll fly ahead and bring proof to the hand if we need it, you hurry along after me and go back up the others if you can.”

With that the mage took flight once more, sailing back the way they had come on broomstick back, leaving the others to catch up and or handle their one surviving (hopefully former) foe.

”Yeah, let’s go.” Sakura felt the elation of victory, but it was subdued by the violence they had to do, and the long history of evil represented by the little spirit the Sun Abyssal left behind. She spared a glance to Bella, Rika, and even New Southern, who seemed thoroughly nonplussed. ”We- we don’t have any time. We’ll sort through all this later.” Sakura said with a helpless shrug. The familiar sound of sneakers smacking against stone filled the chamber as the street fighter carried onward.

Climbing this mountain was nothing to sneeze at, unless you caught a cold during it, which was very likely with how chillier and damper things got further up. But compared to the literal mind-bending feats of jumping, swinging, and scaling he's done in the past, it was no issue for Raz. He was uncharacteristically quiet during this stretch of the climb, outside of helping others whenever they needed a boost up. Was he mentally preparing himself for the upcoming fight? Contemplating the nature of the world they were in? Having a song stuck in his head on loop? Who could say, really.

The break at the big iron door helped to reorient him to the task at hand. Being too distracted was a bad idea when things were about to get dangerous. "You can count on me, Mr. Band," Raz said with a small salute. "No way I'd abandon mid-mission!"

The giant ice-wall man made him second guess that statement just a teensy bit. "Woooow. That's... really big." With that helpful observation given, Raz took up the rear of the group down the narrow bridge, taking to it like a horse took to water. Or, no, wait, like a fish took to... horses? Ok, maybe the cold was getting to him.

"Psst." Raz shot a whisper up the group, trying not to be too loud, but also wanting to actually be heard. A pretty harrowing balancing act, much like the actual one they were doing. "Are we sure this isn't that champion guy we're supposed to deal with? Because he looks kinda dealt with already. Is he even still alive?"

---

With all the horrible aquatic monstrosities that Nadia saw, fought, and worst of all, smelled so far, Nadia had been expecting something so repulsive and disturbing that its visage might be seared onto her mind for all her days. In fact, if she hopped out of that tunnel to see an elder god face to face, she wouldn’t have been surprised at this point. Instead she found herself confronted by something strangely, elegantly ethereal. Beautiful, even. The creature reminded her of a mermaid at first blush, although it sported an aqueous body practically devoid of definition, as well as a glaring cyclopean eye that made it a far cry from the beguiling sirens of legend. Yet for its alien appearance, the voice that resonated through the cave after it shot its water blasts was female, and while it used somewhat ornate language the Oceanid professed a rather mundane desire. Namely, that if it was a fight the Seekers wanted, it was a fight they’d get. “Works for me!” Seeing a clear shot toward the miniboss by springboarding off a water-boar’s back, Nadia prepared to pounce.

At that moment the mighty main cannon of Geralt’s Breaching Bastion, pragmatically brought forth from the water just outside the triangular platform during the Oceanid’s elaborate entrance, filled the air with uproarious sound, acrid gunsmoke, and withering force. It put a quick end to Nadia’s plan, but as she uncovered her ears and turned her gaze upward to see the destruction the team Witcher had wrought, her heart sank in her chest. Rather than reduce the Oceanid to steam, the shell passed straight through her body without resistance and exploded against the cavern’s roof, and for a moment the whole chamber shook amidst a shower of dust and rubble from the shockwave. Without another word, the miniboss swooped to the right and dove straight into the drink, leaving her hydro mimics to deal with her attackers.

“Hey, come back!” Nadia called, jogging over to the edge to peer into the water for any sign of her target. “I thought you wanted to fight us? Water you waiting for, come on!” Noise from behind her prompted a one hundred and thirty five degree swivel of her head, just in time to see the water-boar charging her way. “Whoa!” She sprang up and over in an acrobatic backflip to let the creature charge on by. With a flourish and a mock bow she landed, seized her tail for use as a sword, and extended it ready to finish the floundering beast off, only to find her quarry walking on the water beyond the platform’s edge. A look of mixed annoyance and disappointment crossed her face. “Of course.”

No longer able to skim the surface like she used to, Nadia couldn’t do much about the water-boar beyond her reach, so she took a brief moment to check on her allies. Geralt stood before his Breaching Bastion, whose cannons blasted away at the enemy hawks to eliminate them one at a time. She appreciated his focus on the troublesome targets, but the Witcher seemed content to defend his blacksteel siege engine for now, rather than take the initiative with that silver sword of his. “Hey, we’re on the clock!” she reminded him, waving her time-marked left hand to catch his attention. At the same time she spotted Mirage taking on the crocodile with both his weapons and a few mimics of his own, which left the cranes for Hatty, although Nadia didn’t picture her having any trouble with the slow-moving, projectile-happy birds. That left just Ace, who she was only too happy to see and fight alongside yet again despite the terrible rush, and with his hunting skills on deck, getting rid of these summons would be a cinch. And once they were gone, the Oceanid would reappear to make more, leaving herself vulnerable in the process–or so Nadia really, really hoped.

That just left the boars as the main issue. Unlike the hawks, who hovered overhead and made for easy cannon fodder, they wanted to get too close for comfort. The first finished its turn and careened her way just as the second made its move, forcing Nadia to dodge one and then the other to avoid a nasty skewer from their tusks. She made sure that neither got off scot-free, however, with a few choice cuts from her claws and tail as they passed. Unfortunately, the slashes she left in their watery hide began to seal up straightaway. “They’re healing?!” Nadia exclaimed. “Guess I gotta pig up the pace. Need a hand, here!” She reattached her tail and picked out one boar to focus down. Time was not on her side.

Geralt watched the Breaching Bastion’s main cannon shot pass directly through the Oceanid with his heart in his stomach, and let out a deep sigh. Well, it was inevitable that something would manage to find a way to not be wounded gravely right at the start of a fight. As the smaller cannons took on the hawks, Geralt took a moment to guard the Bastion and get a better idea of what they were dealing with. She was right that their time was limited, but he’d rather take an extra few seconds, figure out what was going on, and get it done than just waste time fighting puddles of water.

The hawks weren’t taking the Bastion’s fire very well, unlike their master, and the boars started to rush in and attack Nadia. It was there that Geralt decided to intervene, taking a few swift steps forward and lifting his sword up and through one of the boars from the ground, already turning and swinging the blade diagonally through the other as he moved. Turning to the one he’d first hit, Geralt moved his fingers in the Sign of Yrden, placing a magical circle on the ground. “That’ll slow them down a bit.”

“This won’t be easy,” Delsin sighed, readying a fire grenade. Just as the elemental’s first wave of attacks began, the young Conduit threw the grenade, hoping the flash would stun their enemy long enough for everyone to spread out and begin their own attacks.

Once he was positioned at its side, he began launching a volley of fireshots towards the monster. Despite most of his attacks hitting, he didn’t see much damage coming from his flames. He just hoped he wasn’t more of a hindrance than a help to his allies.

Meanwhile the Ace Cadet was glad to see that physical attacks did actually damage these things, unlike the one that had summoned them. Initially he had skated over to where the Oceanid disappeared to see if it was hiding under the surface, but there was no sign of it. He glared at the water to little effect. If that was the thing they had to beat, it was going to run their time down just by hiding! Still, he wasn't about to sit there on the off chance that it resurfaced. The Cadet turned his attention to the elemental-animals, zipping across the water to help deal with them. He steered clear of the speed trap Geralt set down, instead taking on any of the enemies that ventured off of the platform. At the moment that was one of the boars, who ran far when they charged - but no matter where he cut it, soon enough the wounds would close up again. They were made out of water, after all.

"Do these even have a weak spot?" he questioned aloud while withdrawing his sword from the boar's head. It didn't seem phased. He kept slashing, trying to beat it's healing rate.

Left with the Crane flock that unwisely used their wings for little more than momentarily creating space for their tidal ranged attacks, Hat Kid proved to be something of a mismatch for the hydroform avians, numerical odds doing little to level them out. She practically taunted them on approach by virtue of the ease and finesse with which she circumvented the waves cast her way. She had dodged worse in the past, and much more of it at a time. In mere seconds she was over their heads, all but stomping on them as she bounced between targets, chaining kicks and Umbrella swipes between them, and by implementing Homing Attacks to chase them down with as needed, she maintained her airborne assault even as they moved to make room for themselves. She ended her onslaught with a Burning parasol thrust to drive her through one, followed by a similarly empowered angular rising then falling thrust to scatter another, both provided by Terry’s Cap. She finished by skipping through the scattered puddle of a freshly fallen Crane to kick off of one still standing, switching to her Brewing Hat mid-flip to lob an explosive vial at the remaining cluster in a fadeaway toss, and fluidly rolling to her feet the instant her upper back touched pavement, landing in time with the vial’s contact detonation. With a smug, cocky grin and a flourish of her hand run along the brim of her Hat, she turned her gaze on the rest of the battlefield looking for her next move to make, confident enough in her work to not look back (because it was always cooler that way).

The deft bladework of both Witcher and Hunter helped to prove that the hydro-boars’ healing wasn’t quite as troublesome as it initially seemed, with repeated slices and thrusts accumulating much faster than the fake pigs could mend them. They, along with the other mimics, showcased a notable resistance to interruption, as demonstrated by Nadia when her attempt to claw one’s face to ribbons ended with it ploughing through her instead. She sprang to her feet with a scowl, frustrated by the emphasis these opponents placed on force over finesse. With raw power not her strong suit, it felt as though the feral wasn’t pulling her weight in this no-holds-barred race against the clock. “Nyyyyyagh! This is startin’ to boar me!” As the guys made mincemeat of the more distant mimic, she channeled her anger against the one softed up and slowed down by Geralt. She unleashed the dramatic tension in a rip-roaring Cat Scratch Fever and tore into the boar with a series of rapid-fire claw clashes, back and forth, until a point-eared headbutt finally burst its bubble.

Just then the last hawk swooped toward her, talons extended, but a final shot from the Breaching Bastion blew it apart before it got a chance to rake across her guard. That left just the other boar, on its last legs and soon to go down thanks to Ace’s assault, and Mirage’s crocodile. After narrowly avoiding a leg chomp, the Legend sealed the deal with a Wingman shot right to the dome, never once troubled by any kind of healing factor. “Whabam! Mirage one, water dinosaurs zero.” As he grinned, however, he noticed that water seemed to be gathering around the crocodile a little too late. He turned to run for the hills and promptly slipped, going down hard on the slick stone floor. “Oh, fuuu-!”

The watery blast hurled him through the air, off the platform and into the drink. “Mirage!” Nadia cried, turning to run his way. At high enough speed, an impact with water differed little from an impact with concrete, and he’d been perilously close to the center of that explosion. As she pattered over he bobbed to the surface, battered black and blue but still very much alive.

“-Udge,” he finished, wincing. A big hand from Geralt would be enough to bring him back out of the water and into the fight, but Mirage had lost his beloved Wingman, and when he tried to take a step he quickly discovered a broken leg. “Well, that could be better, but we don’t have the time to fuss. I’ll do what I can, but you all have to focus on taking that thing down!”

His plea coincided with the destruction of the last mimic by Hatty and Delsin, which prompted an instant reaction. A cry of pain flooded the chamber as the Oceanid burst up once more, her melodic voice now angry. “Ignorant ones! Let’s see what happens when you lose your foothold!” She dove into the platform, and though she passed straight through it as she did Geralt’s shot, her passage caused runes on a third of its surface to light up. Nadia hastened away as a whole section abruptly began to descend, sinking until it lay under a good five feet of water. With its absence, the battlefield was that much smaller.

The heroes scarcely got a moment to breathe, however. New hydro illusions appeared to replace the previous wave, including a self-healing turtle as tall as a rhinoceros, a water devil that dealt constant damage to in a small area around it, and a pair of tigers. It was a lot to process, but little about the situation ultimately changed. Nadia made a split-second decision and ran at the tigers. “Here, kitty-kitties! Time to earn your stripes!”

The Ace Cadet chose to tackle the turtle, quite literally. He had zoomed towards the platform once the boar was taken care of, just in time for the reinforcements to appear. That water being sure kicked up a fuss when it's animals were destroyed, so if that's what it took to get it above the surface and defeat then he would oblige. He slammed shield first into the turtle, finding it sturdier than it's watery appearance suggested. Following that up with some forward slashes from his sword, he also found that it had the same kind of healing that the boars did. Aw, seriously? he thought. He didn't even have a pun for this. Yet.

Geralt was quick to move to Mirage’s aid, grabbing the man about the waist with one arm and dragging him back to safety, though he noticed the man’s lack of armaments. His own plasma pistol from Tora had grown in size with him, so he wasn’t sure handing that over would be a good idea.

He was forced into action, however, with the sinking of a large portion of their platform, forcing him to redirect the Breaching Bastion at the horrific amalgamation of tentacular terror and fire the main cannon on it (with another warning to the others to cover their ears, first, of course!) while he fished the plasma pistol out. “Don’t know if this will work, but it’s better than nothing!” Stooping to place the weapon on Mirage’s lap, Geralt moved to help Ace take down the turtle creature with his silver blade.

Geralt’s heavy ordnance did the trick, obliterating the vicious but slow water devil in one fell swoop. Then, recognizing that an enemy with both defense and self-sustain might very well prolong this fight past the point of no return, he set his sights on assisting the Cadet with the Carbonemys mimic. Fighting a giant tortoise was an exercise in getting around its nigh impregnable, spiky shell, which took an equal measure of focus and coordination from both monster slayers. Unfortunately, that left Nadia on her lonesome against the tigers, and despite her bravado the cat didn’t exactly fancy her chances against two savage jungle beasts. The paired predators attacked her ruthlessly, pressuring her such that she could barely strike back between dodges, and before she knew it she found herself pushed to the edge of the platform. Sensing weakness, one tiger pounced, its cruel claws poised to cleave through her neck. Instead Nadia launched her head, bopping the other tiger in the nose as she did, and got off with a glancing slash to her chest instead. Then the farther mimic batted her head away painfully, bouncing it across the platform. “Guh!” she snarled, willing her body to flip and airdash out of the corner. This wasn’t going well.

And it only got worse. After another few moments of frantic scramble, a flurry of plasma shots flew in from the sidelines where Mirage wasn’t content to lick his wounds, each superheated bolt evaporating the tigers’ aqueous hide where they struck in a sizzling spray of steam. Given the creatures’ positions Mirage mostly landed his shots on just one, and with a snarl the mimic turned on him. Spectating from where her head lay on its side, her cheek squished against the stone under an inch of water, Nadia breathed a sigh of relief between spits of seawater. With just one tiger to deal with, she could actually focus and turn the tides. Her gratitude turned to horror, however, when the tiger’s furious rush toward Mirage made clear the consequences of his distraction. “Mirage! No!” Her body took off after the rogue tiger in a mad sprint in hopes of defending her ally, but the other beast intercepted her with a savage side-swipe and carved deep into her belly. “Nyaaaah!” she cried, her body staggered by the ostensibly fatal wound, but it did not fall. Nadia Fortune was more than a fighter–she was a survivor, and in this crucial moment, she needed her allies to help her teammate rather than her.

Though pain knotted her voice, she yelled, “Leave me be, save Mirage!” As the tiger lunged toward her body for the kill, she sprang into the air, hooking her claws into the mimic’s snout as it passed below so that she’d come down on its back. Its condensed form held beneath her weight, and though it tried to buck her off, its instincts did not allow it to sacrifice its footing, so Nadia’s body kept hers. She span up both forearms into drills and drove them into the back of the tiger’s head, reasoning that even if it lacked a weak spot, she could deal enough raw damage to put it down.

Progress with the turtle was slow going even with both Geralt and the Ace Cadet tag teaming it. The latter was doing a mental walk-through of his inventory, wondering if there was anything he had that could speed this process up at all. The sword and shield's sword dance wasn't a defense-breaker per se, but even if he took the time to swap to a weapon focused more on dealing damage, they all lacked the kind of power to break through the turtle's shell in one blow. As for items, he listed them all in his head; coatings, berries, potions, a dung pod, a shock trap... wait, that might work!

He paused his attack to pull the shock trap out of his bag when pained shouts from the other side of the platform drew his attention. He didn't think he would ever really get used to seeing a friend decapitated, even if it wasn't the first time that day and said friend still could function perfectly fine without her head. The Cadet disengaged his current target, intending to go help Nadia and return the favor from earlier, but she screamed of a more pressing concern. He spotted the tiger rushing Mirage and changed course.

"Hey Geralt, catch!" He tossed the shock trap the Witcher's way, an item a little bigger than palm-sized that resembled a mine. The Cadet was already in the process of turning away as he spoke, rushing his words in order to get them out before he raced away. "That trap is made with Thunderbugs, it emits electricity so just stick it on the ground or break it open to give that thing a good shell-shock, that might soften it up!"

Or so he could only hope. He broke away towards Mirage, intercepting the tiger a moment too late. It had pounced on the man, sinking it's watery jaws into the arm he'd hastily brought up to stop it from mauling him completely. When the Cadet arrived it was with a jagged slash that would have been visceral had the tiger not been conjured from water. He cut from its neck along its length, forcing the beast to back away after shredding what it could of the Legend.

Catching the offered shock trap, Geralt looked at the device curiously. He trusted the Cadet to help Mirage and Nadia deal with the elemental tigers, and instead turned back to the turtle. He vaguely remembered the Hunters from Ace’s world using devices like this to capture monsters, not that he was around for long enough to get a grasp on how exactly they worked. Nonetheless, he quickly placed the device on the ground and stepped back, goading the turtle into walking over it. The device promptly went off in a shower of electric arcs and furious sparks that surged through the Carbonemys’ aqueous form. Although typically capable of no more than immobilizing a large monster, the shock trap both paralyzed and dealt constant damage to the hydro mimic, which gave Geralt all the opportunity he could want to make good use of his incredibly conductive silver blade.

Delsin had spent enough time watching and waiting. Even if his fire wasn't doing much damage, it was still something and it was better than nothing. "I have an idea!" He ran up behind the tiger facing Mirage and swung his chain hard, hoping to draw its attention, then turned to repeat the same motion with the tiger being ridden by Nadia. Seeing her headless was concerning but she seemed to be at least somewhat fine. "Attack them from behind! Work together! Try to attack just as they're about to and keep their focus changing!" He stole a glance over to see the turtle was being dealt with a lot better.

The Conduit’s chains, swept into the hydro-tigers as they struggled against Ace and Nadia, performed better than even an optimist like him could hope. Lacking the turtle and boars’ flinch-free hardiness, both mimics reacted instinctively. Nadia’s only leaped out of range, but the other rounded on Delsin with a vengeance, lunging toward him to rake its claws through his flesh before he could bring his chains to bear. Nevertheless, that moment of distraction gave Ace the chance he needed to really pay back Mirage’s attacker. The hunter followed it as it moved, slicing a matching line down it's other side. One or two quick slashes after had the mimic agitated and rounding on the Cadet, but he finished it off with a forward thrust into it's skull. The tiger's form rippled and broke apart, just in time for the others to take out their own beasts.

Geralt took advantage of the creature’s paralysis, swinging his blade rapidly through the hydro mimic, sparks flying off the creature and the silver of his sword. The runes on the blade seemed to glow as the electricity sparked over it, but Geralt knew this meant nothing more than the blade conducting the energy around it. His whirlwind of attacks continued, the oversized Witcher focusing the thing’s head on the hope that they worked at least somewhat like real creatures. If not, it wouldn’t hurt much to be here, and he could always move to evade as the paralytic effect of the shock trap began to fail.

Fail it did not, as Geralt’s blade combined with the electricity quickly reduced the hydro mimic into nothingness. Nodding, Geralt turned to the others, who were handling their own enemies.

A little extra damage on her own tiger, meanwhile, granted Nadia the leeway she needed for a final push. With a guttural cry she pushed the spin of her arms into overdrive, reaching full mrow-tation, and in a huge spray of the mimic’s vital fluid she drilled clean through its neck. Its body lost cohesion beneath her, and she sank down to the floor, chest heaving from the effort. Her head breathed heavily where it lay, even if her lack of connected lungs at the moment made the action pointless. After a moment she took a deep breath and used a jet of blood from her neck to zip over the floor back toward her body. As much as she wanted this to be over, this fight being just two rounds seemed a little too good to be true. If the Rule of Three was in effect, she needed to be whole for whatever came next.

What came next was another appearance by the Oceanid, soaring out of the water in a majestic arc. When her voice echoed through the flooded cave for a third time, it conveyed not just pain and anger, but also an undertone of fear. “Defilers of peace and purity!” it wailed. “Know that one who is ignorant of water's treasures fails also to comprehend its horrors!”

She dove into another third of the platform, forcing it to sink just as the first had. Nadia’s eyes widened as she realized that the wounded Mirage was going down with it, mere seconds away from being pulled under. “Hey! Somebody grab him!” she shouted, too far and weak to rescue him herself. After the aquatically-challenged Seekers hastened to relocate to what solid ground remained, they found themselves with barely any room left over to work with as they anticipated just what the Oceanid had in store for them now.

Their opponent did not disappoint. Three new hydro mimics manifested on the water’s surface around the platform, each bigger and badder than any from the previous batch. One was a spike-covered leviathan, the fearsome Gobul, its cavernous mouth wide enough to swallow Nadia whole. The thought struck Nadia as so singularly terrifying that she froze on the spot, shivering like she had hypothermia. Along with it came a tentacled, eye-covered Mojadrak, a dragon twisted into an abomination by the mutagens of the deep. Finally, there appeared a giant eel, simple and unremarkable compared to its fellows as long as one could overlook its remarkable size–from belly to dorsal fin, it was as tall as Nadia. The huge mimic slithered across the surface, snakelike, a living torpedo that sought to snap up anyone it could in its jaws. It bore down on Nadia like a runaway train, but try as she might to flee, the feral couldn’t move.

Cursing, Geralt sprinted over to the sinking platform, silver sword stowed on his back. “Ace! Grab Nadia and move!” He shouted, massive boots splashing water all about the place as he ran to grab Mirage, stooping to pull the legend up and onto his shoulders, pausing a moment to take and stow the plasma pistol so that it wasn’t in their way. "Don't have to tell me twice!" Came the quick reply. The Cadet had already started moving as soon as he realized that Ms. Fortune wasn't.

As their platform began to sink even further, Geralt nearly up to his hips in water, he pushed himself to get to the parts that remained, rudely dumping the Legend onto the stone before pulling himself up with a groan.

Refusing to apologize, Geralt cast Quen upon himself, drew his silver blade, and growled before calling out to the others while pointing the Breaching Bastion, literally, at his target. “One more shot going out! Cover your ears!” As the turret bore down on the spike-covered Gobul, he did not hesitate to unleash the main weapon on the thing.

As his ordnance platform took aim, however, the hydro-Mojadrak took action. Whether imbued with the memories of the Water Devil or merely more intelligent than the average mimic, it turned away from its enemies to attend to its endangered Gobul ally with Shelter from the Deep. At its command the water swelled around its bulbous compatriot, creating a formidable barrier with as much vitality as the Mojadrak itself. When Geralt’s mighty cannon thundered through the cavern once again, it struck the shield with absurd force, but even more incredibly, the shield held. Once robbed of all its force, the blacksteel shell plopped down into the water to sink like a rock, and the unharmed Gobul pressed on.

Just as the Witcher ran to help Mirage, the Conduit joined him, wrapping his chain around another of Mirage's limbs to help pull him out, though with great difficulty. Once Mirage was safe, Delsin began running, covering his ears at Geralt's command. Once it was safe enough, he pulled his hands from his ears to wrap his chain around the top jaw of the eel as he leapt on top, riding it. He heated his chain as much as he could, hoping to evaporate off enough of the water to kill the monster chasing Nadia.

Geralt took notice of the water shield that had appeared, but refrained from reacting until after his shot failed, and even then he only let out a curse.

The Ace Cadet had taken a direct route to Nadia, racing over the water and remaining platforms alike until he reached her. He scooped the woman up into his arms and kept on going, narrowly avoiding the full brunt of the giant eel's charge. It's teeth glanced his armor, denting it in and sending him spinning. It was sheer force of will that kept the Cadet upright, keeping a tight protective hold on Nadia while his feet dragged on the water to finally stop the momentum.

"Phew." He was ready to deposit Nadia back on solid ground, trade a smile for a joke and get back into it - but when he looked down at her and saw her petrified expression he was overtaken by concern. They had precious little time, he knew, but still he hesitated to bring her back to the battle. "Hey, are you alright?"

Once snatched from the jaws of defeat, it took a second for Nadia’s brain to start working again. When it did, she suddenly found herself in a bridal carry, and in the strong arms of her crush, no less. Under normal circumstances she might have offered him her thanks along with a little teasing, her cat-eyes bright and a more than friendly grin on her face, but now wasn’t the time. In fact, when she realized that she must have not only frozen in fear at the sight of the sea monsters’ enormous maws, but also put Ace in terrible danger as he rushed to save her, the frustration already perilously close to boiling over inside her erupted into genuine anger. “Mierda!” she swore, clapping both hands to her head with a grimace and a groan of self-loathing. “Aaaagh! I’m okay, I’m okay, I need to get my head in the damn game, that’s all!”

With a look of gratitude she extracted herself from his arms and hopped back onto dry land. She spared a moment to watch Delsin’s enthusiastic -and optimistic- assault on the giant eel’s head. By taking a page out of Nadia’s book he found himself a safe place to attack it from, and once on top the lashes of his chain left steamy, sizzling furrows in the monster’s aqueous flesh, but it would take longer than the team had to put the it down like that. The freakiest beast of the lot, the Mojadrak, seemed content to hang out a short ways off and not attack for now, though that struck Nadia as more of a concern than a blessing. Then her eyes fell on the Gobul as it heaved toward the Seekers’ platform, fearless thanks to the hydro-Mojadrak’s enduring Shelter from the Deep. Mirage laid into it with everything that his weapon had, and Hatty blasted it with a charged beam from her umbrella, but it wasn’t enough. Recognizing the danger, the heroes other than Delsin moved to help, but the Mojadrak interfered once again. With a roar it conjured Glacial Waves, sending out a pulse of frost across the water to freeze its enemies for a few seconds on contact. Nadia’s speed allowed her to spring over the wave with a somersault, but Mirage couldn’t save himself, and the feral couldn’t reach him in time.

Mirage turned her way with something in his hand. “Here!” he called, slinging his Arc Stars for safekeeping. He flashed his friends a heroic smile despite the slavering monster mere meters away, as if urging them to be brave and never say die, just like him. Then the Gobul rolled over and brought its spike-covered back down on the Legend in an enormous flop, crushing him beneath its bulk.

“NO!” Nadia launched herself at the monster, only to bounce off its weakened but still active shield. She came down on her stomach in the ice-cold water atop the platform, but when she looked in anguish toward the spot where Mirage vanished she saw not a pile of ashes, but a stretcher being borne away by a team of rescue Palicos. Ace’s furry felynes had saved the day, just as they did for Mr. Brineybeard back at Blackwater Bay, despite Nadia forgetting about them. A wave of relief swept through her, washing away the chill that settled over her heart. “Oh, right! Purr-fect timing, fellas!” In a flash she was back on her feet, but contrary to what her pun might suggest, Nadia was not at all in high spirits. Mirage would be okay, after all, but what about them? Three monstrous mimics still stood, and according to the numbers on her hand, only about two minutes remained. She looked down at the Arc Stars in her hand, remembering the devastation they wrecked back at the start of the Bottomless Sea, and held them tight. “Okay.” Her angry face turned toward the Mojadrak, staring daggers into as many of its eyes as she could. “First things first, that horror movie reject needs to die!”

As Delsin’s monotonous fight with the eel raged on, Nadia sprinted over to Geralt and began to climb him like a hungry kitten. In a flash she was crouched on his shoulder. “I’ll back you up!” she told him. “If you see an opening, throw me!”

Having been too late to prevent Mirage’s untimely ‘demise’, Geralt nodded to Nadia as she climbed him. The water around him was freezing cold, and he could feel it sapping the heat from his body with each passing second. Still, no self-respecting Witcher would be slowed for even a moment by such trifling concerns, and once he managed to break the ice around his feet, he stalked towards the Mojadrak, sword in one hand, and Nadia in the other.

With a yell, he tossed the feral at the monster before him, following with a charge, silver blade held in both hands, and began a violent barrage of strikes against the creature that had so thoroughly frustrated their efforts in this hopefully-final group of foes.

“Whoa, already?!” As Geralt pulled his arm back, Nadia curled up, and the next second she sailed off like a fastball. Trusting in her friend’s aim, she squeezed her eyes shut and blasted out jets of her own blood to speed up her spin until she became a blur of sharp ears, tail, and claws. She carved across the top of the hydro-Mojadrak’s snout and into its central eye like a woman-sized buzz saw, shedding such copious amounts of its essence that its attempt to put up a Sea Guardian shield around itself faltered. That allowed Geralt to get close and begin his offensive, targeting all three eyes on one side of its body. As Nadia’s spin lost momentum it gathered water for an Aquablast, but despite the feral’s dizziness she managed to hitch a ride on the Witcher once more, hiding behind him as the stamina-leaking attack erupted in a conical blast.

Meanwhile, Delsin’s battle with the eel continued. Though his superheated chains vaporized a small chunk of the mimic’s constituent water, he was running out of fire, and the eel showed no signs of tiring anytime soon. He looked around for anything that he might be able to use to his advantage, and in the course of his search happened to find something odd–an unfamiliar figure in a long black coat, armed with an odd, vivid scythe as she stood at the mouth of the entrance tunnel. With the stranger’s hood up, Delsin couldn’t see their face, but they were clearly human, and any aid in this tiresome battle would be invaluable. They beckoned for him to try and steer the eel their way, after which they readied for his coming by conjuring a duo of clones from flurries of flower petals, each with their own scythe at the ready.

Once the Ace Cadet ripped himself free from the ice, he found the tentacle dragon being assaulted by Geralt and Nadia, the giant eel tangling with Delsin and Hat Kid (the hooded stranger off to the side he failed to notice), and one bulbous leviathan unopposed and getting ready to try and make a meal out one of the Seekers once it found an opening. Of course it would have to get through the monster hunter first, as the Cadet hurried over to intercept it before it could interfere with any of the others.

"Just you and me big guy, and I'm not letting you off easy," he told the mimic. Even without it's distinct bright colors, the silhouette and movement of the mimic informed the Cadet that this was indeed a monster he was familiar with. He hadn't tangled with too many Gobuls in the past, and technically this was just some watery copy, but he figured it was more or less the same: avoid it's spiked back, needle-like teeth, and whipping tail while piling on the damage. Though familiar or not he would gladly take up the fight against the thing that petrified one friend and very nearly killed another. Thank goodness for those felynes, really.

The Gobul sized the Cadet up, and apparently came to a decision quickly as in the next moment it hurled itself toward him. It turned to roll onto its side, aiming to crush the Cadet with it's spikes like it had with Mirage, but it was met with the shield of a prepared opponent. The force of the roll drove the both of them forward, but once it stopped the Cadet was left with little more than some scratches and dings. He wasted no time retaliating, swinging the blade of the Master Bang against the Gobul's hide. Unfortunately the hunter's attack was met with a 'shield' of the monster's own. The water barrier around it was growing faint, but apparently it was still enough to stop the sword. For now, the Cadet's brain supplied helpfully. If the barrier was getting weaker then he just had to break through it. The area around them became a wild flurry of splashing water, the Gobul lashing out with tooth, claw and tail while the Cadet let his sword dance against the watery shield.

Delsin nodded to this strange figure before beginning to lead the eel towards them to the best of his ability, which wasn't very good. Seeing the person and their clones with scythes and flower petals getting closer, though slowly, he put all his strength into a jump to try to slam it on the water in front of the newcomer. While jumping off the eel did little, his fire shots and flaming punch did a little more to knock it down into the reach of the scythe.

The conduit soon found that he need not go to such extremes. As he directed the eel closer, the black-coated interloper’s copies swung their weapons one after another, sending forth blades of blood to bite into the hydro mimic’s liquid flesh from afar. Each visceral wave left a gash in the creature as tall as a man, eliciting a robust spasm, and when it careened close enough the original stranger flung her scythe itself. It pinwheeled through the air to cleave a grievous furrow through the mimic, and as it flew its wielder leaped after it, producing a simple but elegant twinblade. She landed at a run and sprinted down the monster’s length in a flurry of slashes. When she ran out of runway she leaped once again, but rather than sail through empty air to splash down in the open water, the hooded stranger caught her scythe and disappeared into a well of churning darkness. Only flower petals -and the devastation she’d wrought- remained to mark her passing.

Delsin smiled at the display of strength and agility, both concerned for the strange visitor and in awe of their attacks. Seeing the state of the eel, Delsin made the dangerous choice of jumping in its mouth and firing as many fiery shots towards where he thought an eel's brain would be, expending the last of his fire until his next recharge. If the eel still wasn't dead at that point, he'd just continue with swinging his flaming chain, though the flames were weaker. Now that the mimic was flagging, Hatty could hit it with sustained, repeated blasts of her umbrella beam, so the two kept at it until the softened-up sea creature was well and truly smoked.

Though the destruction of the giant eel mimic near the entrance to the cave made for quite the spectacle, the other Seekers remained otherwise occupied, so much so that the mysterious benefactor’s whole appearance went unmarked. A loud crash rang out as Ace’s one-man slobberknocker dispensed with the last of the Gobul’s shield, and with the Mojadrak under Geralt and Nadia’s intense scrutiny, the monstrous fish wouldn’t be getting more support any time soon. The rolling water barrier splashed into the waters of the cavern, creating shallow waves - and from these waves the Gobul came barreling again. Without it's extra protection, the only thing it could do was employ an "offense is the best defense" method and attack. It's opponent still had his shield though, and despite the beating it was taking the steel was unyielding. The monster crashed against the shield, doing chip damage and putting itself well within reach of the Cadet.

"Gotcha!" There was a bright pink flash before the Crush Shot slammed into the Gobul, sending ripples throughout it's aqueous body to weaken it. In the brief moment that it paused in confusion the Cadet went in again with his blade. The deadline must have been drawing close now, so he wasted no time in trying to put the thing down.

As the Mojadrak unleashed a blast of water at Geralt, he simply ignored the attack at first, continuing his swiping at the monster. It twisted back and forth in an attempt to rake its own bladed spines across its attacker, which made for an unusual sword fight. After a few moments, though, he noticed himself getting tired much more rapidly than felt natural. As his sword dipped, the Witcher stepped back and called over his shoulder, “How you holding up back there?”

“I’m feline fine,” Nadia replied. Assuming his backpedal and hail to be her cue, she vaulted over his shoulder and sprang forward. The switch-up allowed her to flip past the Mojadrak’s ill-timed counterattack with a smile, and before the beast knew it Nadia loomed directly above it with her head in her hand. She revved up her head like a power drill, and gravity brought her down with all her weight -as well as what blood she’d managed to repressurize while Geralt took point- behind it. The beast’s fake scales yielded readily beneath the savage onslaught, and in a matter of seconds Nadia tore a pit into its cranium. Yet a hydro mimic had no vital organs to damage, so before the cat burglar could pull herself clear and leap to safety, another Aquablast erupted beneath her like a geyser and sent her flying sky-high instead. The Mojadrak, having weighed its options, then elected to ignore Geralt and gather its energies for a cast of Rain Water, a skill that promised to grant the beast both more stamina and another precious shield.

Geralt, having taken a moment to collect himself after the blast of stamina-sapping water while Nadia attacked, stepped back in with sword in one hand, and the other making the Sign of Igni. Rather than just unleashing a quick blast of fire and being done with it, however, Geralt put a bit more focus behind the attack, transforming the magic into a steady stream of flames, blasting directly into the hydro mimic. The blazing torrent kicked up a wall of steam, vaporizing the Mojadrak’s front one inch at a time, but it couldn’t quite interrupt the cast. As he felt the magic becoming a drain, Geralt cut the mental connection, ending the stream of flames and following up once again with another volley of slashes. They fell upon a mimic with fifty percent damage reduction, which gave the thing enough poise to steel itself and charge forward. Though not quite as tall as Geralt, the steam-shrouded seabeast bulled straight into him, relying on a low center of gravity and substantial mass to knock him down. It was at that time that Nadia fell nearby, and without any blood for an airdash she could do little more than yell “Cannonball!” as she splashed down into the chilly water beyond the platform.

Geralt was unceremoniously bowled over, grunting as the shield provided by Quen promptly dissipated. It managed to protect him from serious harm, surely, but the biggest downside of the thing was that if never managed to keep him from being thrown about like a ragdoll. Rolling to a stand away from his enemy, Geralt pointed at the thing and called out to the others. “Another shot! Watch your ears!” Doing a quick check to make sure nobody was in the line of fire, he called the Breaching Bastion for another shot of its main cannon. Even if it only broke the shield, it would have to be enough to keep their momentum. The next second, the hydro-Mojadrak’s back half disappeared, its freakish form reduced to mist by the deafening might of the Bastion’s most immense ordnance. It staggered, every tentacle writhing, only able to stand thanks to Rain Water’s protection and its natural tankiness. With a rippling cry it gathered what it had left for another Aquablast, but with its front shaved off, its back blown away, and its top tunneled into, it wasn’t long for this world.

Geralt hummed as he watched the Mojadrak be blown in half by the cannon shot, and stalked towards it with his blade in both hands. As he descended upon the thing, he put as much as he had into every blow, vaguely aware that the group’s time was now running dangerously low. If they didn’t destroy these things soon, Blue Team would be a thing of the past. They’d, if lucky, avoid being turned into Spirits and used by the horrors that dwelled in this place. The simple thought of being turned into a Striker for somebody else made Geralt’s skin crawl, despite his own use of the things at points.

Speaking of which, as Geralt hacked into the weakening Mojadrak mimic, he thought of one of the Strikers he’d just recently added to his collection. Calling on the Judicator, he stepped back a moment to give it room to attack, stepping back in once the thing had found its own rhythm. As the eldritch horror belched spectral flames from its scales, Geralt hacked into the mimic with greater and greater ferocity, practically cleaving off chunks of water with each blow. As he felt the Striker’s short time limit coming to an end, he had a particularly inspired idea and ran atop the monster’s back as Nadia had his, landing atop the creature and creating the Sign of Aard with his free hand as he landed. The sheer force of the telekinetic blast scattered the remains of the Mojadrak’s aqueous body like it was merely a puddle while the Judicator vanished into motes of light in the background.

As the mimic’s body melted back into the water from whence it came, an utterly soaked Nadia pulled herself from the water and onto the platform, wide-eyed and shivering like a lost kitten. Nevertheless, she managed to put on a congratulatory smile for the victorious Witcher. “Yeah, you go, big guy!” With a cough she removed her head and shook it, emptying water from the neck, then popped it back onto her shoulders. “One down, two to…hostia puta!” She gawped at the figure inscribed on her hand, a horrified look on her hand. Then she set off at a dead sprint toward the Gobul, her chill quite forgotten. “We’re dead in like forty seconds!”

Meanwhile, the battle between the monster hunter and his current quarry was nearing it's close. With it's attack strength weakened the Gobul was at a disadvantage, doing less damage to the Cadet than it was taking. Much less, as it's movements were being read and it's attacks avoided wherever possible. It was a bad match-up for the Gobul mimic. In a last ditch effort it spun around to whip the hunter with its tail, and then sucked in water until it's size expanded even more, becoming bulbous.

"Konchu go down already?" The Cadet huffed. It's inflated size did not make it any tougher, and as far as the Cadet was concerned it only gave him a bigger target. It was time to get to the point and poke a hole in this thing so they could finish off the creature they really came here for before time was up. He went in with a leaping attack, slashing a line down it's front and following that up with a flurry. He put as much power behind each stroke as he could, opening deep cuts in the hydro mimic.

Apparently though, he wasn't working fast enough. He heard Nadia shout the remaining time and cursed as the Gobul thrashed around and reared up on it's hind legs. It was going to throw it's full body weight down to crush the Cadet. At that moment he made a split second decision to tank the body slam rather than run and waste even more time. With just the right timing he should be able to pull it off. He hunched down, pulling his sword arm back, and met the creature with circular slashing motion of Round Force. The sword cleaved through the hydro mimic's body, toppling it over. Yet it still lived, floundering on the surface and struggling against the Cadet, who'd stabbed his weapon into it to try and finish it off. "It's almost dead, come on!"

Approaching as quickly as her not inconsiderable base speed would allow, Hat Kid began priming and lobbing vials skyward rather than directly at anything, aiming to circumvent cooldown to manifest multiples. She made about three before she had to switch hats to get in gear, Sprinting and bounding to catch the bundle mid-fall (two in hand, one by foot) and throw into the mimics gaping maw as it inhaled. Switching again for Power as she hit the ground with a boosted somersault, she skipped forward still, a glow of blue and yellow flame briefly licking her step before she bounced backward off of the downed monster for altitude, then pausing midair for a second to focus the energy she had built in that instant. With its release, signaled with a pronounced glint, she willed herself darting forward at speed with a tiny Burning fist extended, aimed for the monster’s exposed underbelly with the intent to punch through.

Explosive concoctions and a tiny Homing Dunk paved the way for the arrival of Geralt and Nadia, pushed like Hatty into a panicked frenzy by the promise of the clock. The feral spiked her head into the mimic’s cratered stomach like a volleyball, which struck and started biting without delay. “Omnomnomnomnom!” she garbled between mouthfuls of water. As she did her body, following in her little friend’s footsteps, double jumped to rocket downward in an all-out Feral Edge. Her tail skewered the Gobul, then ripped loose a jiggling chunk of its mass as it sliced free. Finally, her head sent itself flying with a vigorous sneeze, clearing the way for Geralt.

Geralt followed after his feline ally, silver blade slashing through the mimic’s aqueous body like a hot knife through butter, adrenaline and the need to prevent the Seekers’ untimely demise fueling his attacks.

The Cadet had kept his sword firmly planted in the mimic's body to keep it from wriggling away while the other laid into it. As it started flagging closer to it's demise, he ripped the blade out, leaving a ragged hole in it's body. He wound up for a powerful slash, cutting through the esca and fin then deep into the mimic’s face.

The Gobul dispersed immediately, annihilated by the heroes’ overwhelming combined power. For all their effort, however, their kill count still amounted to just two. But when Nadia turned to look for the eel, fighting the urge to look at her hand the whole time, she saw nothing of the sort anywhere in the cavern. “What? Where!?” Had Delsin really taken care of it by himself? If the mimics were gone, all that was left was…!

Her eyes were drawn upward to the Oceanid as she drifted overhead, her liquid body weak and wavering. “We seek but a small haven of tranquil waters... is that so much to ask for…?”

“WILL YOU PLEASE HURRY UP AND DIE?!” Nadia shrieked. Her joints bubbled with blood, ready to pull out Fifth of Dismember if it meant bursting this absurd timesink of a boss down.

With a final groan the Oceanid complied, dissolving into rain to fall over the weary, wounded heroes atop their platform. Nadia paused, momentarily stunned as the other thirds of the platform began to rise from the depths. Then she glanced at her hand, saw what little time remained, and took action. “Fifteen seconds, we can do this!” From the water a trounce blossom grew, then opened its petals to reveal the Rhodeia’s spirit. Nadia snatched it like a pearl necklace, which started its dissolution, then took off that hand and hurled it, aiming for Hatty.

Motivated by speedrunner’s stress and the mortal threat that failure promised, Hat Kid was already running for the chamber's entrance before Nadia made her pass, jumping to intercept it as she went. She literally didn’t have time to be put off by the fact that she was carrying her comrade’s severed hand, focused instead on seeing them home free at the last possible second, which her agility and experience (doing just that, as it happened) made her naturally the most qualified for. As she bounded from the platform’s edge over an open body of water she couldn’t clear in one move, it became apparent that she wouldn’t be able to make it back in time on her own…

Only for a massive pair of hands to grab her mid-jump, Geralt having followed after. As he landed on the other side of the gap, his massive size and mutagenic strength having propelled him to safety, he tossed the Kid like he had Nadia, trusting in her supernatural agility to right her mid-flight, and get her to their goal on time.

Her flight path, she could control; her speed, she could not. Down to the single digit mark, she realized she might not make it back after all, but daunted she wasn’t, because the Spirit in Nadia’s hand in her hand could still cross the finish line ahead of them. So far as she could tell, that was all the Master Hand needed, or wanted for that matter. As she cleared the exit and touched solid ground once more, she left it just as soon on contact by boosting herself forward still, rather than skidding, sliding or running. She preferred not to waste an ounce of the momentum she had been granted. She applied her acrobatic ‘boost’ technique to skipping along the walls on every round turn she hit on the path back, gradually losing control with each step as she effectively pinballed her way through the tunnel. On the very last push, Master Hand in sight as she reentered forward flight for the last time, she mustered what strength she could minus resistance or leverage, made up for by momentum, and pitched Fortune’s mitt as hard as she could toward their waiting taskmaster before hitting the ground in a reckless tumble. In and out of three sets of hands (including Geralt’s), and on its way to another, the Spirit would find its way home. It was, quite literally, out of their hands from there. They could only hope they weren’t a second too late…

The Siren’s precious spirit held tight and Mimi watching his back, Bowser Junior raced back down the tunnel toward the malodorous Parasite Farm, fittingly enough, like his life depended on it. His clown car made good time, bypassing all the hazards that a wet and uneven stone floor might otherwise confront him with, and since no threats either dropped form the ceiling or leaped from the shadows he soon arrived back at the main chamber unimpeded. He zoomed in to find Master Hand floating exactly where the Seekers left him, expressionless and imperious as ever, and the entity offered nothing by way of reaction to Junior’s return–just an open hand to receive his offering.

It took only the most cursory of looks around to confirm that the young prince had arrived first, the Trial of Desire and its loathsome Siren the first to be conquered. Despite blindsiding him, his father, Blazermate, Link, and Peach with a shocking and dangerous gimmick that pitted them against one another, the good guys came out on top once more, and without a casualty to their name. As Junior began to wait, though, the gravity of his own wounds and exhaustion began to sink in. A few moments to rest while the others made their way here would be most appreciated.

He didn’t end up waiting long, however. After only a couple moments a second Koopa flew into the main cavern with a mission-critical spirit in his grasp. Kamek arrived to deliver what remained of the Abyssal Sun Princess to Master Hand, placing it into the entity’s palm alongside the spirit of the Siren. Seeing one another alive and well did a whole lot of good for both elder and youngster, relieving some of the stress and dulling some of the pain incurred during their respective fights. If Junior looked like he’d been through a scuffle, Kamek looked like he’d walked out of an active warzone, and given the nonstop torrent of aerial mayhem he’d been subjected to the description wasn’t too far off.

Of the two victorious parties, Kamek’s ended up returning first. Rika, Bella, and Sakura appeared from their tunnel together, limping along with one another’s aid as Kamek’s white clone work to patch them up. The monstrous firepower, deadly cunning, and terrifying expertise of the abyss had left them so beaten up that their whole bodies were one big ache, but they were okay, and even in good spirits. Aside from packing one more victory under their belts, the Abyssals in particular had faced their demons, quelling some of the strongest small-scale fighters their former Fleet had to offer. What the demise of the Sun Princess meant for the Fleet none could say, but all dared to hope for a brighter tomorrow for the Deep Blue Seaside. Spinal trailed behind them, splintered and broken but still active, and a respectful distance behind him followed New Southern. Though she held her cross spear as she lounged atop her Abyssal crustacean, she gave no sign of ill intent, and her lilac eyes decried the influence of Galeem inside her. It was a stroke of luck that she and Spinal never once crossed swords, since otherwise the gleaming skeleton would still be on the offensive.

On account of having to restrain their rogue princess, Junior’s party returned second. All got more or less roughed up from the tricky fight, not to mention the stamina cost. Bowser especially looked like he’d pass out any moment and fill the cavern with thunderous snores, while Peach looked not just super gassed, but dually angered and embarrassed by something. She deigned not to shed any light on their experience, instead slouching against the cave wall to massage her temples. “That…” she groaned. “Was annoying.”

Two down, one to go, with barely a minute left over. Limited time marched on, and though the triumphant heroes remained calm at first, each second that passed fatefully by without an appearance from the third party caused tensions to mount. None would venture that they didn’t trust the last third of their number if asked, but anxiety built up anyway as one Seeker after another checked the counter on his or her hand, verifying the scant seconds that remained. Fifty. Forty. Thirty. Twenty. After that point, nobody dared to look. Time was running out. The others weren’t showing up. Nobody needed to explain when a few of those present launched themselves forward, sprinting or flying toward the last tunnel, hastened by wild desperation.

Then, the pitter-patter of little feet echoed down the tunnel. Hat Kid rounded the corner with a cloud of mist at her heels, sprinting for all she was worth. In her little fingers she clutched the unmistakable hand of one Nadia Fortune closed in a fist, and the second Hatty had a line of sight on the entity that put her up to this, she reeled back like a baseball player and let it rip. Nadia, no longer sensing Hatty’s touch, opened the floodgates on all the blood she’d pumped into her detached limb. It shot off like a rocket on a trial of high-pressure blood and soared the remainder of the way, flying hundreds of feet until its thrust abruptly cut off. Then the hand dropped and tumbled across the slug-covered floor, bouncing end over end until it finally came to a stop just a few yards away from where Master Hand floated. Its fingers uncurled. Inside, the spirit of the Oceanid, the final ingredient for the Seekers’ salvation.

”...Time.”

Master Hand rolled over, dropping the other spirits onto the floor beside the Oeanid’s. It rose up into the air above the gathered heroes as the members of the third party trickled in one at a time, unconcerned with their labored breathing. Anyone who dared to check his or her hand would discover the same inviolable truth, etched in six characters and two symbols onto their flesh.



Peach’s breath caught in her throat. Her blood grew cold, her mouth hung open, and her shoulders went slack. They…failed? No. No way. They couldn’t have. The timer must just have not stopped. After all, if they’d failed, then that meant they were going to die. She knew not how, but she knew the power of Master Hand, able to warp space, to bend reality, to alter, to make, and to unmake. Could they fight it? Was there still a glimmer of hope? Or was this, after all they’d been through, the end?

”...New record.”

The entity collapsed in on itself, and disappeared in a blip of prismatic light. Behind it, the turbulent black fog wall disappeared, revealing a wide tunnel with an easy slope downward and to the right, hooking left. The path was open, and no foreboding digits besmirched their palms. They had survived.

Nadia jogged up, her chest heaving as she gasped for air. As she came to a stop she bent forward, hands on her knees, to catch her breath. “Where’d that big hand thingie go?” she wheezed as she turned her head upward, a cheerful grin on her face despite her injuries. “Did we win?”

---

The tunnel ahead was a short one, leading to a round grotto with a mostly dry floor, and there the heroes collapsed. They spread out around the place to rest and recover; needless to say, with Master Hand gone, they felt like taking their time. The healers had their work cut out for them, to say the least, but bit by bit the heroes’ cuts closed, their bones unbroke, and their punctures disappeared. Some chatted, commiserating over the nasty surprises the entity’s absurd challenge threw their way, while some kept quiet. Nobody could truly relax while they knew thanks to Hat Kid's hat that the boss of the Deep Blue Seaside waited for them just down the tunnel on the grotto’s far side, but they could try to take the edge off, at least. In the center of the grotto yawned a circular hole, and in it rested a lift that promised to connect to some hamlet building up above, should anyone need a breath of fresh air after all that action, not to mention the reeking sea slugs.

Spinal stuck around to get his skeleton mended back to how it should be, but those who fought alongside him -or attempted to communicate with him, for that matter- had a clear enough view of his insanity to know that he might not be around for long. New Southern, meanwhile, elected to not follow the Seekers down at all. For all her feigned indifference and genuine confusion over her place in the world post-awakening, the Abyssal knew just how unwelcome company she was to these former enemies, and steered clear. Instead she made her own way toward the surface, no doubt trying to find somewhere less abhorrent to lay down and mull things over.

Nadia reclined on a bed of kelp, her hands behind her head. Despite her relaxed posture, she harbored no end of frustration about her performance in the time trial. After doing consistently low damage, having to evade near-constantly, and requiring help from her teammates all too often, the feral felt pretty darn upset with herself. Sure, she’d gone her entire life fighting humanoid opponents one on one or in small groups, but Nadia knew she didn’t need to be making excuses for herself. She needed to do better. Be better. Be stronger. As per usual she didn’t share her feelings aloud, but her discontent showed clearly on her face. Now that she was part of a team, especially a team with people she was starting to care a lot about, she couldn’t afford to be weak. But how…?

When an idea came to her, she didn’t hesitate to capitalize. “So, what’re we gonna do about those spirits?” she asked. She got up and pattered over to where the loot was laid out. In addition to the Siren, Sun Princess, and Oceanid spirits, they also had the two Ucas, the surprise Black Mage and White Mage spirits, and Pacific’s if Rika wanted to part with it. “Mister Grabby didn’t want ‘em, and they’re pretty strong. If we’re gonna be squarin’ off with the big bad, we oughta power up, right?” She gave the group a solid second before rushing to make her own climb. “I kinda want that watery fish creature. If I get hydropower, I might be able to do more with my blood.” With a thief’s dexterity she snatched the spirit and held it up by her eyes for inspection, hoping that nobody would object.

"Seriously?!" Laharl scoffed incredulously, stepping away from the warmth of firelight to get in the other demons space "I just trudged through the sweltering heat and freezing snow," he poked his finger sharply at Mao in the chest "Do you hear me complaining? What are you a wimp?" Laharl stepped back smirking and folding his arms together as if awaiting an answer.

"See you around wimp," turning to retreat back to the fire as his so-called 'ally' opened his mouth "Some Overlord..." Laharl muttered under his breath and grabbed his coat to follow the others as they left.


As they traversed the cold heart of the mountains icy tunnels, Laharl hung close to Primrose looking over his shoulder every so often to glare a suspicious look at the white-haired guy people called 'Therion' "Hey Prim?" the boy uttered tearing his gaze from the shady character in question "Tell me what's the deal with snow-white?" he tried to talk quietly but the cave walls echoed his voice loud enough most heard him. But subtly was never his strong suit anyways...

”That. Was much to close” Kamek said, finally finding his breath after the incredibly close call they’d just had.

”Leave it up to the team with only heroes on it to leave things to the last possible second, huh?” Bowser replied with jovially, only to cough rather grimly and slump back down into a sitting position once more, the king having only been able to stand in the time it took for some of the others to rush forwards. Exhaustion and an eldritch conch in the gut really had done a number on the king

“So, uh, now that that’s all over, who or what even was that?” Rika asked the question that was probably on a few minds.

”Urgh, wont leave me a minute of rest will ya” Bowser complained

“Oh, sorry” she replied sheepishly, only for her apology to be waved off by the king.

”No, no, your fine. Ok look. So. That was the Master Hand… or just a master hand now I guess? Anyway, long story short hand guy was one of those spooky weirdo bosses where you show up at their house and they fight you for no reason. Then later me, Ganandorf and Wario worked with him to try and take over a bunch of worlds but it turned out that wasn't his plan, it was some guy called Tattoo or something who was pulling his strings. And now it looks like he’s just one of hundreds of identical floating hands that are all puppets of Galeem. Real villain decay kinda deal, poor guy” Bowser explained with general ignorance about and irreverence for the being who was something of a fundamental force of the universe.

“... what?” Rika had to ask, not getting Bowser’s rambling explanation one bit.

”Look. It doesn't matter who he was. Now he’s just a big floating hand who serves Galeem now and throws pre-area boss gauntlets at us now in order to be annoying. First time he threw some friends of some people who were with us at them, and then after that he had a bunch of shooty people, like Link and those two spirits Kamek has, to try and shoot us with guns that turned people into trophies in one hit.” Bowser explained some actually relevant information.

“So, uh, why did he phrase the whole thing as like, a test, to make sure we were ready for the boss or something?” She asked

”Eh. Some bad guys are just like that. Want a worthy opponent and all that baloney. Buncha idiots. Seriously, what I’d give for a nemesis who wasn't a worthy opponent, that’d make my life so much easier.” Bowser replied with a shrug before laying back against the cave wall and saying ”Now that’s enough explanations, because its its snoozing time” before closing his eyes eyes to do just that, the exhausted king finally getting some rest.

“I. Huh. ok?” Rika said, still a bit confused by the whole experience, before turning and asking the other two members of the Troop “Did you two get all of that?”

”Yeah. Hand is a jerk, so we’ll beat all his games and then beat him and finally his boss, no sweat,” was jr’s reply. The prince, having gotten out of the game the easiest out of all of them, was, in contrast to many, mostly taking the opportunity to stop sitting for a bit, hopping out of his clown car and pacing in-order to stretch his legs.

”You get used to it” Kamek informed her, aware that the king’s form of exposition could be a bit hard to parse for anyone who hadn’t grown up with it (like Jr).

It was at that point Nadia brought up the existence of the spirits by requesting the use of one of them. None of the troop had any objection to her claiming it, unaware of what it did as they were. Both the sleeping Bowser and the pacing Jr had any interest in the spirit’s from their area either but as for the trial of the abyss, now there was a treasure trove as far as Kamek was concerned.

”Despite the, ah, danger, of its game the Hand has delivered something of a boon into our hands, these” the amge said as he picked up the three spirit’s from their challenge to show them to the others ”all came from the Sun Princess, leader of the Abyssal fleet and the source of their endless resurrection.”

”Oh wow that’s big,” Jr said, now paying attention, before asking ”Wait, she was three people?”

”I assume she fused with the other two, which while it represents something of a new type of threat right to be aware of in the future, right now it’s worked in our favor, as with one of these three lies the power to bring back the dead,” there was a little glint in Kamek’s eye as he held up the trio ”all that remains is to find out which it is.”

“Do you. Do you think we’d be able to bring Pasific back?” Rika asked, “bring everyone we’re fused with back?”

”Only one way to find out” Kamek said, before plucking the white cloaked catwoman from the pile, banking on magical color theory where white = healing to pull off a win on the first pick, and palming it into his forehead with a ”Bet” before holding out the other two and asking ”who else wants to roll the dice on being the savior of the fading dead?”

---

Midna’s spirit crushing had about the same result as crushing all of the Trapinch body parts, namely a pile of useless materials. Or that was her thought at first, till she slapped her forehead and remembered they had access to a town now, one where these might catch a high value on the market or, perhaps, be able to be made into something useful.

She had to guess that the vial contained giant wasp poison, which wasn't exactly her style but maybe it’d be worth a pretty penny. Now the hide, that she could see uses for right away. Armor, cold proof clothing, a nice fashionable pair of boots and more sprung to mind. Maybe even a nice set of sheaths for her new weapons or a saddle for her mount.

Considering the change it had undergone, it could probably do with one now. Though considering that change had occurred from a related species it was debatable if the hide could be used to improve the situation.

”Well you might be better suited to the environment” she told the wolf-dran as she tried to settle herself back on its back ”but your ability to act as a butt pillow have definitely gone down a bit.”

It still did have fur, true, but that coming out from under the scales ment there was a hard layer under the softness, which was worse than just a pure fur affair. Still, it had indeed gotten some improvements. First off, the wolf-dran was visibly more at home with the chilly temperature as they set off into the caves. It also handled the icy pathways in there better too. Certainly better than Yoshitsune, who was riding alongside her and supplying some convenient heat from his flaming sword, who still had his wheel situation going on.

”If Sec doesn't help you out I can lend you this one as a guide dog” Midna told him, petting the wolf-dran on the head to indicate to it, and causing it to wag its new stuck up tail full of ice spikes.

Midna raised an eyebrow behind her mask as she sensed a little bit of magic being produced by the wagging and experimentally put her hand in the way and got brushed by the tail spikes, resulting in a semi familiar surge of speed.

”Huh. As if I wasn't fast enough” she said with a smile.

All this dog lending offering and experimenting had distracted a touch from the elephant in the room, or rather the giant, who was frozen in the ice wall of the cave. Midna was of the opinion that if you had seen one giant man trapped in the cold you had seen them all, or at least that was what she told herself to avoid getting intimidated by the absolute titan staring down at them. Fortunately for them they probably didn’t need to deal with him due to him being iced, though that didn’t stop Midna doing as Big Band Suggested and keeping quiet as they went past.

Razputin suggested optimistically that the big man might be the boss and was already dealt with, but Midna put an end to that hope by telling him in a whisper that ”A suspicious hooded woman who’s part of a suspicious group who all wear black leather cloaks said it was at the top, so that's where we are going”

In hindsight that wasn't the most convincing, so she added ”Bosses dying also causes everything around them to get freed. That's how I and everyone back at Alcamoth got freed anyway, so if this big guy was dealt with, all those old guys would be free. Also he’s not ash so… ah, shit. Definitely not dead” that put a bit of a dampener on her dismissal of the titan, and so Midna was extra quiet after realizing that, unaware that bodies of the dead from before the world merger still stayed around.