What began as a straightforward fight with a lone ice golem quickly turned to pandemonium when the lurkers in the dark made their presence very known. The gaunt predators split up and went ahead of their lumbering counterpart, leaping from point to point among the scaffolding, mining equipment, and rubble as they closed in on their next meals. A sense of urgency tantamount to panic filled the air after Poppi got disarmed in a single stroke from one of the monsters’ surprise attack, setting the tone for what the others could expect. With precious few seconds to spare they scrambled to gather and ready themselves against the savage might of the Wendigo.
Sensibly, Laharl made a beeline for Poppi’s beacon. He landed just before Poppi did, scouring the area for any sign of her attacker in the radiant glow of her light-attuned Variable Saber. In its glow he and Tora both spotted an ash-gray blur as it sped through the air and latched onto a rocky crag, where it remained just long enough for them to get their first good look at the thing. It was a wretched thing, so emaciated as to be near-skeletal, and mistakable for a corpse if not a human. It looked so horribly stretched, its limbs and fingers all of uncanny length. Its glassy, soulless eyes held such cruelty that Tora gasped as much from fear as from the pain of his bloody wound, but worst of all were its teeth–grisly, crooked, and enormous, many of them missing, and all of them visible thanks to the tattered, bloody, suppurate remnants of its lips. It bunched its loathsome legs for a fatal lunge at the two youngsters, and possessed of nothing but Beast’s hammer to defend himself with, Tora prepared himself for the worst. Laharl, however, had other plans. He called upon his newest Striker to answer the Wendigo’s would-be assassination with a grand bellow of unrelenting force.
The dragonshout struck the ghoulish thing mid-flight and stopped it in its tracks. It hit the stone just in front of the mechanism platform with a shriek, twisting like a cat to get up on all fours, but a vengeful Poppi rushed to capitalize. Her Variable Saber’s blade retracted as it reconfigured, and without skipping a beat Poppi opened fire. A shotgun blast of dazzling lightrays burst forth, piercing her attacker’s leathery flesh in a half-dozen places. She continued to hammer her weapon’s trigger with mechanical precision, blasting again and again even as the Wendigo scrabbled to its feet. Its sprays of searing light hounded its steps, chasing it until it disappeared into the shelter of the shadows and out of sight, wounded but very much alive. Frustrated but focused, she switched her weapon back to blade mode as she alighted between Tora and Laharl, showering the area in its glow once more. “Good work!” Tora quavered, but as his companion knelt to assess his condition he waved her off. “Don’t worry about me. Once we win, Tora heal back to full in seconds. For now we need go full defense!”
Poppi nodded. “Roger roger.” She began to transform, reverting from Poppi QT Pi to Poppi Alpha. In the light of the sparks that flew from the ensuing maelstrom of ribbon and steel, Tora swept his surroundings for any sign of the Wendigo, but found nothing. Not until a gaunt arm burst up between the planks platform behind him, and with vicious claws raked straight through his overalls and shirt and into his back.
“MEGH!” Tora wailed in pain and surprise, whirling around on the spot with his bludgeon upheld. The Wendigo’s limb retracted beneath the platform just before the head of the Nopon’s hammer smashed through a couple boards. “It under us!” Not even a second later both arms came up beneath Laharl, slashing wildly at his legs in an attempt to cripple him. Tora ran over to help, but again his strike fell short. The overswing put him off balance, and before he could recover both arms grabbed hold of the planks directly beneath him. In a single, mighty wrench they splintered the boards, and with his footing destroyed Tora could do little but yelp as he plunged into darkness. “POPPIIIIIIII!”
In the space beneath the mechanism platform, the Wendigo began its onslaught. It ravaged him with bestial fury, filling the shadows with blood. If not for the Drill Shield that manifested in Tora’s wing, constructed from ambient ether, it might have mauled the hapless Nopon to death. Instead its eyes, so used to stygian blackness, filled with the light of Alrest’s energy, and its wicked talons clanged off solid steel. As it floundered, Poppi Alpha smashed through the platform above, pancaking the beast with the weight of her armor just before the blade of her claymore plunged through its back and into solid stone. Coldly expressionless, she channeled the light of her core through the weapon, and as its flesh sizzled the sordid hunter’s shrieking turned from anger to agony. No matter how much it struggled, it couldn’t break free without practically bisecting itself, and instead broke its own bones in an effort to bend its limbs far enough to attack Poppi once more. In that moment, however, those lifeless eyes beheld Tora, badly hurt but not dead yet. “Tora VERY mad now!” he announced, raising his hammer overhead with both hands. “MEH!” he howled, bringing it down on the monster’s head with all he was worth. With the Wendigo pinned, Laharl could join in the beatdown too, and lend his strength to the Nopon’s retribution. “MEH!” Tora bellowed, cracking his would-be murderer’s skull. “MEH!” he screamed, and with a final blow the horror’s cranium blew apart. With a final effort, Poppi pushed her servos into overdrive and carved free of the nightmarish body. Even still it continued to writhe, but without its faculties and in so many pieces, the horror could threaten the team no more.
As bloody as their struggle had been, some of their fellows had it still worse. Sectonia’s flight, size, and ability to blink around kept her out of harm’s way long enough for her to beat back the encroaching darkness with rings of light. While her casts provided some illumination, however, they proved too slow to hit the two rampant Wendigo, and too slow to protect her allies. As Sora raised his keyblade to cast a spell, one of the monsters pounced on him, claws extended. The boy might have died there and then if he hadn’t, in a stroke of either miraculous luck or remarkable foresight, chosen to use Aero. The shield of air deflected the lunge just enough to turn a decapitating slice into a glancing blow to the forehead, and after the Wendigo raked through the boy’s spiky brown hair, it was gone into the shadows once more. Concurrently, the other monster descended on Yoshitsune, only to balk at the samurai’s flaming swords. Sensing a weakness, Yoshitsune charged after the monster in an attempt to chase it down, only for his prey to turn the tables. It flew at him from the side and went low, where its talons sliced cut his left calf to the bone. The samurai went down, with only his fiery katana between himself and a gruesome end.
Primrose had prepared herself for a fight as best she could, but even a seasoned fighter couldn’t have prepared for this. This threat was hard enough to see, let alone fight, and without any protection out in the open it was only a matter of time before trouble found her. Barely a moment after narrowly missing Sora, the naked Wendigo lunged at her, hurling itself down from a scaffolding tower at a high angle. “Look out!” At the last moment, Panther manifested Carmen to slam one of her chained suitors into the monster, and though not a physically gifted Persona, she managed to knock it off-balance. Rather than rip through the dancer’s midsection, the Wendigo bodily slammed into her, sending both to the ground. The monster regained its feet with a snarl, but a spray of fire from Panther’s submachine gun chased it away, its muzzle flash providing snapshots of its escape into the darkness. Fearing for her new friend’s life, Panther looked back toward her. “Primrose! Please be okay!”
“Eyes in front!” Using Lamia, Joker laid down a carpet of fire on the cavern floor, and though some mining equipment caught the rest wouldn’t stay for long. The Wendigo came around again, leaping straight over the flames even as Joker shot it again and and again with his pistol. “Gah!’ he yelled as it landed on top of him, knocking him into the ground hard enough to give him a concussion. It raised its arm to turn his head to pulp, but Arsene manifested to deliver a weighty kick to the ribs.
“Joker!” Panther cried as the Wendigo tumbled. Her fear turned to anger in a heartbeat, and Carmen appeared behind her aglow with her user’s rage. “Dormina!” The spell struck its mark as the monster got up, and like a puppet with its strings cut it slumped back down. Gritting her teeth, Panther let out all her terror and rage in a fiery scream that bathed the sleeping ghoul in flame. It woke up with a blood-curdling shriek, thrashing around in an attempt to put itself out until Carmen followed up with Agilao to turn the wretched thing to cinders.
As it burnt to ash, Necronomicon descended nearby. “Joker’s stunned, but it looks like those things are weak to fire!” she observed. “Lucky us, but the last one’s attacking Yoshi! He needs help!”
The third wendigo, however, wasn’t all that the scattered heroes had to worry about. As they tried to deal with the Wendigo, the golem Kelvin trundled through the cavern toward the first hero he saw, who just so happened to be on overwatch above the rest: Fox. The brute picked up speed and rammed right into the scaffolding the pilot perched upon, sending the whole thing crashing down in a terrific ruckus, Fox included. Wasting no time, Kelvin began to smash through the wreckage, hoping to obliterate Fox beneath his icy fists.
It was into this chaos that Raz, Midna, and Therion descended. As the shipwreck-turned-inferno slammed into the cavern floor, sending burning debris in every direction, it gave them a good look at the current situation. The Phantom Thieves, Tora and Poppi, Laharl, and Primrose were okay for now, but one Wendigo remained at large, and the sturdiest opponent present -Kelvin- had yet to be touched. Fox and Yoshitsune both desperately needed a hand, and though the light down the mineshaft tunnel indicated that the cart-pushers were alert to the danger and on their way, they would arrive too late to save their friends.
As the chunky, cherry-pink geyser of the Orphan blossomed behind her, Nadia caught a fleeting glimpse of a bright blue figure’s final moment, then hit the beach on her front in a spray of sand. As she came to a stop, heart racing and the wind knocked out of her lungs, she felt like a volleyball player who’d dived for a save, except in this case she’d saved her own skin. Her chest heaved from a potent mixture of exertion and panic, and as she picked herself up she wondered if every hit-and-run in this fight was going to end in a harrowing near miss. Twice she’d risked life and limb punching well above her weight class, and twice she’d only barely escaped intact. Sure, this was her specialty and all, and it sure beat getting her lung punctured by a rusty anchor, but all this stress couldn’t be good for her heart. Of course, all the punishment her allies kept taking wasn’t good for them either, so she needed to pull herself together and get back in there.
One thing was bugging her, though. How
had she gotten out of that last one? One moment she’d been right in the splash zone, and the next sailing away. Nadia’s eyes fell on the globules of bright blue blood that littered the black sand, which she recognized as her new vital fluid, scattered by the blast. It took only a moment to will it back toward her for recollection, but that was enough time to put two and two together. “I did get that thing’s power after all,” she murmured. The savior that flung her out of harm’s way had been herself, or more accurately, a double made of vital fluid, just like the animals that the Oceanid used against her. And why not? If the flying fish could copy the ‘shapes of the living’ she coveted, it made sense that the feral could copy what she knew best: herself. Despite the severity of the situation, a giddy excitement lanced through Nadia’s body. If her copycats could do everything she could, this fight was about to get a whole lot more interesting.
Before charging back into the fray, Nadia took another second to take stock of the situation. As the battle moved elsewhere, Geralt elected to remain where he’d fallen for a few moments and speed up his recovery with a big vial of Swallow. The fact that the potions he’d already made scaled with him as a result of his fusion with the decidedly plus-size Harbor Demon came as a blessing, although any future concoctions would no doubt demand greater quantities of ingredients. Since Blazermate did not single him out for dedicated treatment, instead continuing to heal everyone as best she could despite the additional injury visited upon him, the Swallow helped mend the gaps, easing in particular the pain and disorientation his head wound left him with. It would be another moment at least before he could return to the fight in earnest, but his place on the frontlines did not go unoccupied.
Once he made sure that his son fared no worse for wear despite the havoc wreaked upon his clown car, Bowser stomped back toward the Orphan to pay it back with a papa bear’s fury. Still, his earlier pummeling had taught him that he couldn’t afford to be reckless–not against an eldritch abomination that could crack and crumble even a Koopa King’s shell. He joined the Ace Cadet, and together monster and monster hunter moved in to take the Orphan head-on. As the pink mist cleared, the heroes found Bella safe and sound, saved once again by the wonderful Sakura, and just in the nick of time, too. Her look of shiny-eyed adoration would have to suffice as thanks for how, however, since there was no time to spare. Just as Ace and Bowser reconvened, Nadia watched Hatty fall from the sky as a weighty ice sculpture. The fact that the sweet move didn’t squash the Orphan flat left her incredibly disappointed, and even more worried about what could happen next.
Sure enough, the outrageous infant retaliated. It hurled Hatty into the air and leaped after her to smack the living popsicle back down. It happened so fast, and for an awful second Nadia thought that the monster might smash her little friend into a million frozen pieces. Instead its withering blow just destroyed her icy armor, and Hatty tumbled down to the ground, more or less fine. Nadia was beyond relieved to see that the kid stood without issue and proceeded to keep a safe distance from the melee. The second the Orphan touched down after attacking Hatty, it set off a quartet of dark magic mines, and for a brief moment staggered in their nebulous explosion That gave Bowser and Ace all the time they needed to get in and start swinging with gusto. Both got a couple strikes in before the Orphan righted itself, and with a scream the aberration struck back. Its hideous weapon struck at Bowser before it came down on Ace’s shield once more, but rather than pound on it the Orphan swerved to the left, dodging a blow from Bowser in the process and putting the Cadet between the two. As it did it unleashed a wheeling horizontal strike that hit the side of the monster hunter’s shield, blowing his guard wide open. From there the best Ace could do was shove his sharq forward with all his strength, hoping to deal as much damage as he could in the exchange.
A tangible shockwave expanded as the Orphan and hunter traded blows. The former took a sharq attack toits left shoulder, just above the heart, and the latter paid for it with a disjointed uppercut slice that launched Ace right into Bowser, if the Koopa King hadn’t already gotten out of the way. Heedless of any lack of target, it followed up with a second just like it, which ended in an eruption of earth behind it as its placenta looped around. At that point, with no friendlies in its way, Blazermate’s level two sentry opened fire. The Orphan turned its way with a snarl and charged, running straight into the torrent of bullets as it rushed the turret down. Once in range it distended its placenta and swung overhead to clobber the sentry across the top from a good distance away. Whether pushed back by the gunfire or just poorly judged, however, the nightmare’s efforts amounted to no more than a glancing blow, and though bent downward by the force to the point where it could no longer aim, the turret was far from destroyed. Unfortunately, the Engineer got clipped in the thigh by the slam, which both dispelled him before he could repair the sentry and opened a sparking gash in Blazermate’s own leg.
Nadia came running in while the Orphan was still isolated. She cast her arm to her side in a flourish, summoning a copycat to run alongside her. Both Ms Fortunes struck with
Cat Scratch, raking their nails across its arm with the opener of their signature rekka, and as it turned her way with a wheeling horizontal reprisal, both launched into a different follow-up. The fake flew up and over the counterattack with a pounce to deliver a full-force
El Gato axe kick that bopped the Orphan right on its wrinkly forehead and left a couple scratches behind, while the real Nadia went low. As her
Cat Slide breezed under the monster’s placenta her legs spun like twin drills, tearing into shaky calves. “Wreck-a yo shins!” Just as she hoped, the Orphan paid attention to the Ms Fortune in his face despite the pun from below, and as its weapon followed her arc overhead Nadia turned over. After a brief charge both legs rocketed upward in a water-propelled
Fiber Upper. Although she aimed for its head she hit its back again instead, but eh. Good enough. Of course, the freak used the extra force to help obliterate her copycat, but by that time the genuine article had gotten away scot-free. The maneuver, successful beyond her wildest dreams, made her smile ear to ear. “I’m doin’ purr-etty darn good!”
Just then one of Sakura’s hadoukens then struck it right in the ribs, and as it turned toward her with thoughts of annihilation, a railgun blast from Bella’s wounded tail exploded against its abdomen. It flew from the explosion in a rage, aiming an overhead slam at Sakura -the furthest forward of the two- that seemed liable to turn her into a red smear on counterhit. It had one more surprise, too: a wild follow-up swing, meant to pulverize any cheeky attempts to capitalize on a perceived opening. But if that strike got dodged, or wholly deflected, the momentum of the slash put the Orphan at a disadvantage.
It was then that Nadia caught up, just as Bella made her move. The Seaplane Tender sent out her tail to clamp down on the Orphan’s right shin. With the creature already off-balance, a sharp tug forced it to plant its right arm to avoid falling, and that arm was the one with its weapon. In other words, even if just for a split second, it couldn’t attack. Nadia smirked and repeated her assault from earlier, this time splitting off two copycats to perform the mid and high follow-ups to her rekka, while she went low again. It was that choice that saved her from an otherwise fatal miscalculation as the Orphan attacked anyway, twisting the opposite way with an overhead that blew through both copycats before slamming into Nadia herself. If not for the sacrifice of her doppelgangers, the blow might have split her from sternum to pelvis; instead, it left her half-conscious and half-buried in wet sand for her hubris, too dazed to move. As the stars cleared she saw Bowser and Link arrive to help, and not a moment too soon.
The Chalk Prince, the Fallen Child, and the Skeleton
Location: Frozen Highlands - Snowdin
Frisk’s
@Majoras End, Papyrus’
@Dark CloudFrisk’s tease met with a veritable rock wall (or perhaps more accurately, chalk wall) of indifference. Albedo simply didn’t regard the act of following the child with any significance, since coming to the Warrens would naturally form the first step in any rabbit-based investigations. He merely listened to Frisk’s report, on the off chance that the kid managed to learn anything already, and to his surprise, they had.
He listened at rapt attention, his chin couched thoughtfully in the crook of his hand. If the testimony of ‘a couple people’ was to be believed, the painfully harmless Treat was in actuality a skinchanger, capable of terrifying transformation. Although such creatures did not exist in his world, he cast his mind toward the enigmatic wolflike monsters known as Rifthounds that stalked Teyvat’s forsaken corners, as well as the lupine entity that the wild boy Razor conjured when forced to do battle, and for ordinary folk both must seem pretty fearsome. Add to that the possibility that Treat couldn’t control her bestial reversion, and the result was a rabbit-devouring fiend who could arise to terrorize the hapless villagers of the Warrens at any time–if, of course, what Frisk heard was true.
Albedo had his doubts, even after shelving the possibility that the whole story was an out-and-out lie. To start with, he’d never so much as heard the word ‘Wolfskin’ before today. Neither had he heard about any form changes on Treat’s part. He couldn’t discount the possibility that either event simply occurred out of his wheelhouse behind closed doors, since his own anecdotal evidence wasn’t all there was in life, but with no proof the alchemist found such a thing difficult to believe. There would have to be proof, too, if Treat couldn’t control her supposed shapeshifting. While she did sequester herself pretty often, it was by no means rare to see her hanging around rabbit-devoid parts of the town, reading or sipping hot chocolate in the backdrop. Besides, Treat did not seem to Albedo to be the forthcoming type. If she was a Wolfskin but couldn’t transform without this ‘beast stone’, how would the rabbits know about it?
Based on his own line of thinking, Albedo wondered if Frisk’s contacts were merely describing a phenomenon from their own world, then applying that knowledge to someone who seemed to fit a pattern. The difference between this world and one’s own was lost on a Gleaming individual, which meant that fears and prejudices could bleed through despite a complete change in circumstances. A few questions sprang to mind that the alchemist would not mind asking, if he got a chance to question the pertinent rabbitfolk himself.
That would have to wait, though. Frisk was already leaving, apparently satisfied with their new information as the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. The kid gave no announcement of their destination, instead introducing Papyrus and Albedo. Looking over the goofy-looking skeleton, Albedo gave a polite nod. “Hello.”
