Only after Nadia began to put her latest off-the-wall scheme into action did she realize just how much she’d imposed on her allies. After all, the odious Orphan of Kos had just blown apart an entire rocky cliffside, its crimson rupture fracturing literal tons of stone into boulders, chunks, and shards that then sailed across the beach in a scatterblast of epic proportions. The unanticipated fluctuation in gravity reduced the danger somewhat, but a head-on collision with any decent-sized fragment would still hurt like hell, and getting pinned by one could be a death sentence. Worse still, the megalithic bombardment drove the Seekers apart, separating them even more than the nightmare’s blood grenades. It was this in this pandemonium that Nadia Fortune demanded the others’ help to keep the Orphan occupied while she sought to bring her plan to fruition. She needed only a couple all-important seconds, but their brevity made them all the more difficult to supply.
Luckily, Peach wasn’t the only Mushroom Kingdom refugee to lend a hand. Once Kamek, ever the quick thinker, made use of her sorcery to reduce an incoming crag to a far more manageable size, she affixed a dark explosive to it and returned it to sender. Forced by her original form’s advanced age to look on from the sidelines as Bowser and his son enjoyed a variety of sports, the Magikoopa now had enough youth and vigor from Cia and ’B’giotahmo’s spirits to make up for lost time. Like a cannonball the makeshift projectile returned to sender, cruising in just as Peach disengaged and forcing the Orphan to relinquish its pursuit. With a cry it twisted around to smash the slab to smithereens, only for the hunk of rock to abruptly swell to several times its size. The two met in a terrific impact instantly followed by the spectacular detonation of Kamek’s engorged dark magic mine. Together the combined might of eldritch strength and abyssal sorcery annihilated the boulder, and as shrapnel flew in every direction, the Orphan could be seen half-buried on its back in the sand. As insult to injury, the blast of Geralt’s long-shot grapeshot bomb riddled its body with metal, and the monster made its pain heard.
Even that, however, wouldn’t keep it down for long. The Orphan thrashed for only a moment as it sought to right itself, and though the others were more or less recovered from the explosion and on their way to help, Nadia had all the time she needed. Ace landed in her improvised safe and sound, a little disoriented but still down for whatever his fellow Decoy had in mind. Though only for a brief moment amidst the chaos, the feral found her smile returned, which naturally made her beam all the brighter. To have someone else’s implicit trust was no easy feat, but then again, there didn’t seem to be anything a couple of exuberant jokesters couldn’t do. Then Rika screamed, and all too soon the moment was over. Ace zoomed off in a high arc toward the abomination that stirred among the rubble, powering through the collusion of gravity and drag to bring his absurd lance to bear for a thrust the Orphan wouldn’t forget.
Nadia would have been happy to just watch him rip the freak a new one, but to her surprise she found her service as a living springboard wasn’t over just yet. A highly-motivated Hatty suddenly leaped into view, flash-froze herself, and plunged down onto the net Nadia had been just about to slacken. “Bwuh!?” Before the burden of the kid-sicle managed to splat both of them on the sand, the opposing Nadias strained against the trampoline once more, and a split second later hatty hurled off in Ace’s proverbial footsteps.
The real Nadia watched her go with a look of bewilderment as she subsumed both her fibers and her copycats, but her momentary confusion soon turned into astonishment. Rising from the dust and muck faster than she or any of the others dared hope, the Orphan fixed its loathsome gaze on Ace as he began his descent, then took to the skies to meet him in kind. Nadia’s heart sank; what would have otherwise been a
totally awesome team-attack was now a heartbeat away from becoming a lost opportunity at best, and if the Cadet didn’t manage to defend himself, a catastrophic disaster at worst. But as she stared, her hands on her head in dismay as her ears and tail stood on end, Hat Kid’s own cunning revealed itself. The expert platformer had launched herself in a lower and faster arc than the Cadet, and before the Orphan could bring him down, Hatty careened into its upper half head-on. Sent into a backspin by the withering bash, the shrieking horror could neither attack nor defend himself before Ace, like a jousting knight, drove the business end of his Sharq Attack straight into its grisly husk.
Then the two hit the beach in a blast of sand, and despite its near-impalement the Orphan rolled to its feet with its wings billowing behind it. As monster and hunter squared off, Nadia joined the stampede of heroes on their way to his aid, but well before anyone could arrive to help turn the tide Hatty lent a hand once again. With her frozen form wedged in his weaponized shark, Ace could strike out with a crude but effective mallet, and for once in its brief and wretched life the Orphan found itself outranged. For a brief but furious moment the two traded blows, but when the other Seekers arrived the pair bowed out to give the others their time in their wringer.
Sakura arrived first, deftly vaulting over the swing that chased Ace off. Geralt joined her, and together the sweet-and-sour duo fought to deal as much damage as they could while they had the chance. With all the heroes in the way Rika’s whale couldn’t just blast from afar, but the unlikely pair did well enough. After a couple beats the Orphan wrenched more meat from its placenta and plunged it into the ground, and with memories of what happened to Delsin fresh in their minds, both aggressors knew that they needed to dodge away from its front. Nadia skidded to a stop in the sand just in time to avoid running headlong into a massive blood plume, where for a brief moment she waited with a veritable army of Murlocs, Primids, and Goombas at her back. Through the red mist she saw the Orphan a long jump backward from the Seekers, throwing four more fleshbursters as it did. While the cat burglar’s first impulse was to dodge like mad, her keen cat-eyes let her see that none of the projectiles flew straight forward, so on the spur of the moment Nadia jumped up to dash through the air above the carnage. “You’re a real sicko, ya know that?” she growled as she came in for a landing on blood-soaked sand, with Peach drifting down on her parasol nearby. How Junior and Rika’s armada would slog across the beach through the onslaught and reach their fast-moving target, she had no idea. At least the slower Seekers could use the boulders scattered around the beach for cover.
Of course, that was just a taste of what the nightmare had in store. Rather than let the Seekers back it against the cliff wall, the Orphan sprang upward in a lofty high jump once more. It ripped and flung even more fleshbursters as it flew, spattering the battlefield with concussive blasts of viscera, then landed right back in the melee. As Geralt, Peach, and Sakura attacked, Nadia made a copycat and joined them, cutting in when an opportune moment presented itself while Ace, Hatty, and Bella lurked on the fringes, the latter providing air support with her seaplanes. As savage as this thing was, it lacked the creativity to back up its speed and strength. As long as she kept a head on her shoulders, Nadia felt confident enough to challenge it with a strategy in mind. “Hey, no petting!” When it tried to pulverize her with an overhead she scooted around behind to deliver a long kick or swipe; when it reached for a meatwad she made sure to avoid whichever way it faced. And when it released its placenta for a huge flailing sweep she airdashed over to claw at its head, then leapfrog out of there. “A cut above! …Oof!” For that one Nadia took a stray hit from behind and hit to the ground in a heap with an ache in her spine. “Argh, gonna feel that one tomorrow.” A moment more, however, and she was back in the fray.
The Orphan jumped around like crazy, in and out and up and down and hurling blood orbs each time, but after realizing just how much its ‘fighting style’ punished passivity the Seekers relentlessly chased it down. Still, nobody was getting complacent. Everyone slipped up now and then, and the Orphan made them pay each time, which kept Blazermate as busy as ever. Meanwhile, near-constant fleshbursters both made mincemeat of Junior’s summons and made it difficult to coordinate more team-ups. The brawl came to a head when the Orphan finally happened to stop in front of Rika’s whale. It opened fire, only for both shells to narrowly miss, and silhouetted by their explosion the monster charged. The whale rolled into its side as the Orphan came down with a leaping overhead smash, opening its jaws wide enough to essentially split its head in half so that the blow could carve into the sand unobstructed. Then its jaws clamped shut on the upper third of its assailant’s body, its vicious teeth driven in by incredible bite force and sinking deeper. Almost immediately a fleshburster went off inside the whale’s head, rupturing its pale flesh in a half-dozen places, and the Orphan tore free. Yet the exchange bought the heroes time to get in close, and nobody was closer than Sakura. Though she wanted to get a hit in herself, Nadia hung back As the monster wheeled around to resume the fight the street fighter hammered it a mighty blow, staggering it just long enough for her to dodge away without reprisal.
Like clockwork an ally moved in to take over, but this time the Orphan had enough. It slammed its placental weapon into the ground hard enough to bury in the sand, then in an incredible feat of strength sent flying a massive quantity of ground. It slammed into the incoming Seeker like a breaking wave, weak in terms of damage but strong enough to both temporarily blind and knock down, before the Orphan went for Sakura. When it came at her she dodged as usual, only to find herself snagged in a giant grab. Her enemy lifted her by the forearm into the air, letting her dangle for an instant beneath its baleful stare. Then it slung her into the ground, lifted its fleshy armament behind its head, and, gleefully ignorant of her friends’ efforts to interrupt it, pounded her into the mud.
It happened so fast that it left Nadia speechless and frozen, her water pressure fizzling out before she could spring. Bella, however, found her voice. “Sakuraaaaaaaa!” the Seaplane Tender wailed, sprinting toward her fallen savior as she let loose her remaining gauntlet cannon with everything she had. Seemingly without any regard for the barrage, or the brutality it had wrought, the Orphan hurled itself into the sky, its wings whipping around as it span. A second later, another handful of bursters rained down. Her face a mask of anguish, Bella deployed an entire fleet of seaplanes, and as one they swarmed skyward. With tiny guns blazing they fearlessly flew into the falling ordnance, detonating the bombs early enough that none got the chance to reach the ground. Amidst the deluge of gunk and scrap Bella knelt over Sakura, her eyes full of tears.
The Orphan alighted on the earth just a hundred feet away. Scars covered its body from dozens and dozens of messily-healed wounds, a tapestry of cuts, punctures, bruises, breakages, burns, and bite marks. Some of its guts hung loosely around its waist, shards of bone protruded from its skin, and its sallow, stretched-thin skin was caked in mucus, grime, and blood–though not all of it its own. “Healers, help Sakura! Everyone else get it away!” Peach yelled, throwing a grenaduck as she ran toward the ocean. The Orphan gave chase with a bellow, using its cleaver as a third leg as it went for her, but once on the water the princess got a boost of speed that conveyed her beyond her pursuer’s reach. Nadia pulled her woeful gaze away from where her comrade had fallen, taking a deep breath. “She’ll be okay,” she told herself, and before she could think about it any more she sprinted after the Orphan of Kos. No clever ideas came to mind this time; all the feral could think about was putting this menace down once and for all.
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