Humans weren't concerned with the war. Why would they need to worry? After all, they were winning it for sure. And they grew so bold that they created their camps outside of the Exit, preparing for a final attack. Scouts stationed on the high watch towers overlooking that deep dark pit grew ever lazier, and they were going to pay with their lives. Thumping began to sound from deep within the caverns. It was probably nothing... It began to grow louder and louder, and that was when the humans began to care, staring into that cave and preparing their forces. An army of monsters approached, and for a few moments, human and monster stared at each other, unmoving. The head of the monster army was in full armor, a green heart plated onto her chest, and a plume of bright red hair upon her helmet's head. A single yellow eye glowed from behind the slits of her helmet, and she raised an arm, weighed down with her metal armor. She twisted her arm, flipping a spear out of her magic and hurling it into the human lines.
With that, the battle began, and the monsters were determined not to lose this time. Reveling in war was not something Frisk would do, but clinging on to a huge arrow-like skull that blasted through the air with a skeleton assassin at their side about one hundred feet in the air, they had no option. They lifted a hand from clinging onto the blaster's maw to cover their eyes as a laser bled out of its mouth and slammed into the humans below, tearing through their ranks. Sans yelled over the sound of the fighting below as he set off another shot, more spears darting into the human army, "Liking the rush yet, kid? Well this is war! You need to get used to it!" Frisk shook their head as well as they could against the freezing wind that cut at their ears like knives. They needed to get used to this, they agreed with Sans there, but did they need to like it? Definitely not. "Aw well! Hold on tight kid! We're diving!" He laughed, and gave Frisk little more warning than that as the blaster tipped nearly vertically, blasting downwards, cutting through the sky. "Cover your eyes!" Frisk heard Sans say as they slammed into the ground.
Frisk could hear Undyne shouting taunts at the humans, and the very commander of the monster army herself jumped out with a loud clank, jabbing her spear into another human and flicking them off as if they were a bug. They might as well have been bugs, seeing how pissed Undyne seemed and how easily she was killing them. Frisk didn't understand something, though. Why were the monsters losing if they could do this? Sans whipped away the dirt and dust that had been flung up from their impact in the ground, letting out a cheer. "HELL YEAH! Come on fish lady, let's wreck some fuc-" A blast went off, blotting the rest of Sans' words out before Frisk could hear them. Frisk got up slowly, rubbing their head and nearly yelping when they realized that they were sitting in a crater. Oh sweet Angel, how hard did they hit the ground?! Sans ran off with Undyne at his side, whipping a blue colored bone into his hand and swinging it as he ran. He was... Disturbingly cheerful in the face of death. But Frisk supposed they should have already known that. They climbed out of the crater, trying to avoid stepping on the bodies of the dead. It sent chills up their spine. A hand suddenly caught Frisk's wrist, and they yelped, attempting to yank themselves away, to no avail.
It was odd to see a familiar face that was human when you had lived with monsters for six months, apart from Chara, who had disappeared one day and never came back without a notice to anyone. It was their old instructor from the top of Mount Ebott. That was a place the monsters had managed to take back, the peak of the mountain. Frisk could still smell the burial fires, even now. It seemed that he had escaped... And his eyes were wide, asking Frisk how they were alive after being dragged into the Underground like a ragdoll. But they didn't have a chance to answer when a blare of hot fire slammed into him, followed by a golden slice. He let go of their arm, turning to face Toriel, her face the picture of fury. "Don't... Touch my child!" She yelled, knocking Frisk behind her before whipping her cape out, covering her target. Toriel jabbed her firey sword straight through him, from what Frisk was able to figure out. She swiftly turned to scoop Frisk up, sheathing the hilt of her sword and holding them over her shoulder. "I shouldn't leave you with Sans in the middle of a battle. I told him just to let you watch! Not drop you into danger!" Toriel said. "Come on. Stay near the Exit with Alphys. She has the turrets set up. You'll be safe there." Toriel told Frisk, marching through the ranks of monsters to the Exit. Frisk knew that she was going to give Sans a very, very stern talking to that he wouldn't even listen to after this battle. If they won.
With one hand to hold Frisk, Toriel whipped out her hilt again, growing a fire blade and slicing it at a human who decided to make the mistake of facing her, nearing the Exit. Get one-shotted. "Mom, I have a question." Frisk said to her, staring at the body of the poor soldier.
"What is it, my child?" She asked them, passing the barrage of turrets that Alphys has spent time setting up. Toriel knew that if Frisk spoke, she better listen, because Frisk usually never spoke.
"... Why are we losing, even when we have monsters that can do... Stuff like that?" Frisk asked, pointing up at the beams rolling from the mouth of a blaster that Sans had decided to take to the air with. Frisk winced, watching him carefully and biting their lip to keep themselves from yelling to not let go of his blaster. He was completely vertical to the ground. Toriel put a gentle hand on their face, turning their gaze to her.
"Numbers, Frisk. They can overwhelm us with just how many humans they have in their army. Frisk, they have billions of people. We have little more than the smallest fraction of their forces in our entire population. It's that simple. Now... It's time to cut their numbers. Stay safe, little one." She said, before pulling her hilt out again, and standing up. With that, she ran past Alphys' turrets, with a battle cry. That woman changed when she was in battle. That being said, Frisk climbed past Alphys, who lifted a hand to wave to them before turning back to her beeping console. A rocket fired from a turret, and Frisk bit their lip, scrambling up the hill to perch on top of a large, tall rock to see as much as the battle as possible. Magic, steel, and pure engineering genius clashed one on one, and the surging ranks of humans began to be felled. Frisk gasped, leaning forward. Were they going to win? Were... Frisk caught sight of Undyne, who tore off her helmet, throwing the beaten thing at a beefy looking human, knocking the guy out, before shouting something that even Frisk could hear.
"Give me a lift!" She bellowed, and Sans dive-bombed into the ground again, sending up a huge cloud of dust and dirt. Frisk wondered how they had managed to survive that attack of ridiculous proportions. Undyne leaped onto a blaster with Sans, nearly falling as they ascended. Far up into the air, Undyne put her hand on the snout of the blaster, and beams, laced with spears, shot out of its maw into the ranks. Suddenly, everything began to turn. No longer were the waves of people clashing against each other, but they were a single wave, running away from the Exit. The monsters stopped, letting the humans run, but that didn't stop Sans and Undyne zooming after it and disappearing into the distance with the humans.
"... Well, F-Frisk! What do you think about... O-Our first win?" Alphys asked Frisk, turning off her console. All at once, her turrets began to fold into themselves, compacting and morphing until they were heavy metal crates. "Pretty exciting, huh? W-We haven't had the land outside of the E-Exit for a while!" Frisk stared into the distance for a few more moments, before nodding. Huh. The monsters had won. That wasn't something Frisk was used to hearing, or saying. "... This is gonna take a l-long time to clean up." She said, walking down the hill to join the rendezvous taking place in the middle of the valley. Time to count how many monster deaths there were. Frisk slid down the rock, ignoring the scrape they got on the back of their legs, running after Alphys. They finally caught up to the group of monsters, where Alphys handed Toriel a folded up piece of paper.
"Right then...One moment." She rolled it open with a sigh. "Sans and Undyne are probably fine. They'll be back soon." Toriel said, beginning to call out names and marking a few off with a few movements with her hand. Frisk could see the ash on her hands. Quite a few were marked off, and Frisk assumed they were the fallen soldiers. Frisk bit their lip, seeing Toriel's point about overwhelming numbers. They walked up to her, and she rested a hand on their head for a moment before continuing, counting under her breath. "... Sans!" She called. Toriel blinked in surprise, glancing around her. "Has anyone seen him? He has a reputation to disappear at random moments." Toriel said, and Frisk was about to speak when the blare of Sans' blaster rung through the sky and screaming was heard. All of the soldiers were speechless as Sans landed on the ground, and Undyne tumbled unceremoniously off, sobbing. Sans sighed, sitting down on the grass among the fallen human and monsters, saluting Toriel.
"yo. someone call?" He said casually. Toriel merely blinked. "oh, her? ... ever seen a fish fly? yeah, neither have i. exactly."
"You will never convince me to do that again you sadistic bastard!" Undyne yelled.
"you're the one who told me to 'give you a lift'. i'm not an elevator." Sans yawned, before leaning against his blaster with a sigh.
"... Sans and Undyne... Accounted for." Toriel managed.
That night, fires burned high in the valley before the Exit. Grim faced monsters mourned their own losses, but spat on the corpses of their deceased enemies before tossing them into the magically lit fires, where they would crumble to dust within the hour. Asgore, the nearly fatally wounded king, sat beside Frisk. And even though his face was creased with lines of pain, he wore a large smile. This was the largest victory the monsters had managed in quite a bit, and it lifted the king's spirit. He knew that many people died, he also knew that they died for the greatest cause of all. Freeing the monsters and defeating the humans. Asgore sighed, holding out his huge paw for Frisk to help him up out of the grass. By now, monsters considered Frisk as one of their own, and who cared if they were a human? There was a good human once, the child of Asgore and Toriel. All of them couldn't be that bad. "One day, you're going to get to fight out with us, little one. But, for now, Undyne and I have been talking. Now that we've reclaimed this land, we've expanded our territory, and we're preparing the plans to build a more permanent settlement outside of the Underground." Asgore explained to Frisk as they walked. Frisk didn't enjoy the thought of hurting others, but it was only by Sans saving their hide on multiple occasions that they made it out of the Underground without fighting anyone...
"Anyways, the point I'm trying to make is that Undyne will be taking over your training, with some additional help here and there from Sans, Papyrus, Alphys, you get it." Asgore explained to Frisk. Lo and behold, one of the certain people Asgore had listed off groaned from behind them, and Frisk let out a yelp, nearly falling over due to a blue magic they were all too familiar with lifting them up back onto their feet.
"Okay, trainin' this kid with Undyne? I'm chill with that. But Papy trainin' them? Nah. Don't let the kid be trained by two monsters who had wanted 'em killed. Get my point, Fluffybuns?" Sans explained to Asgore. Asgore decided to look over the fact that Sans had called him 'Fluffybuns', and sighed.
"I suppose you're right. Okay then. You and Undyne can take over their training." He admitted that Sans' point was valid. "But, on another note, what about the name of the town that we will be building here?"
"Super Mega Death Town... of death and stuff." Sans spoke up, and Asgore immediately shot him a look. It was kinda hard to be intimidated by a guy who everyone called King Fluffybuns, though.
"I meant for Frisk to name it?" Asgore said. "... And was that a reference?"
"definitely not referencing a crazy human gunner... but don't... jinx it." Sans laughed.
"... I don't get it." Asgore said, and Sans rolled off of his blaster, howling with laughter at his own joke, faceplanting in the grass. With that, Asgore quickly swept Frisk away from him, questioning his sanity. Frisk thought as they walked. This was pretty big, wasn't it? Naming an entire monster settlement? They snorted, thinking of something that would fit the typical bad naming streak Asgore had. Home, New Home, Snowdin, Waterfall, Hotlands? Clearly a master of naming things badly. They shook their head, thinking of how they could break his streak and name it something good, something like...
"New Beginning?" Frisk asked Asgore. Oh well. They did it on the fly, anyways. Asgore seemed to approve of it, looking over how their naming skills were on the same caliber as his, approaching Toriel.
So, on a night, when funeral fires reached into the night sky, where the stars seemed to dance among the funnels of smoke, the monsters celebrated their victory. It really was a New Beginning for everyone. And Frisk, sitting side by side with their mismatched group of monster friends, was determined to beat the humans back and save the monsters from being killed off. War wasn't pretty... They knew that. But with enough patience, bravery, integrity, perseverance, kindness, justice, and above all, determination... Frisk knew they would win one day.
Welcome back to the grim world of Understrife, everyone! As the title suggests, this takes place after the events of the Understrife fanfiction I wrote...
That's it.
buh bye-