Chapter 4: Remember Life
A voice cried out, pierced through the air - a single defiant word to remind her of something she had almost forgotten.
"No!"
The cry was followed by a yell of surprise, and then a thundering crash. Inari opened a tired eye.
Erik was on his face, and Galiana stood behind the Mamoswine, covered in translucent emerald-like crystals, mostly on her joints, torso, and head. A Grass Knot whip covered in Spikes lay around the hulking ice pig's ankle.
The Houndoom just stared incredulously as her victory was delayed not once, but twice now, her brow twitching. "Well." She grumbled, before glaring at the interrupting forest fairy. "At least this saves me the trouble of finding you, Tinkerbell." She snorts a puff of flame. "Did you have second thoughts about hiding behind your partner?" Galiana simply held out a psychic crystal on the back of her hand, expanding a small buckler defiantly.
"Beside you." A disembodied voice. Galiana's voice. It was faint - perhaps due to the strain the armor put on her psychic abilities. But even in Inari's own struggle to stay awake, it was definitely Galiana. She peered off to her right. A seed.
No time to ponder when what happened. She reached out for the seed, and clutched it tightly in her palm. Galiana's reverse leech seed - she was sharing some of her energy with Inari. More than that, Galiana was tanking the hits for her. Inari watched as Erik made his way slowly back to his feet, and Roxxi just growled - obviously not taking this interruption lightly.
Erik's massive tusks glowed with a slight blue tint before encasing themselves in ice. Icicle Crash. Roxxi flipped the bird at Galiana and proceeded to light the tip with a sizeable fireball - an Inferno fireball easily the size of Galiana's head.
Inari had one shot. She had to be fast, or Galiana would be hurt. That would be worse than any beating they could give her.
She pushed herself up shakily. The seed hadn't worked its full magic and given up everything it had - but it was enough. She pocketed the Toxic Orb, and clutched the seed. They hadn't noticed Inari's recovery yet.
She rocketed forward, and encased her massive normally pillowy tail with a solid sheet of metal, and smashed Roxxi across her upper face with an outcry as she swung her Iron Tail. A tooth-sized chip of her Houndoom horn flew from the impact.
Inari continued her deft and agile spin, knocking a solid fist-sized chunk off the tip of Erik's Mamoswine's tusk, ice and all.
Not wanting to let Roxxi get a chance to step in to cover for Erik again, Inari engulfed both fists in flames so intense, that Galiana herself took a step back. She saw Inari's practice sessions often enough to know what was coming.
Both feet rockets ignited full blast, causing Inari to tear through the air and pummel Erik. Left, right, left, right, left, right, straight, hook, cross, straight, hook, cross, her fiery fists pummeling the Mamoswine in meticulously-practiced formation.
Suddenly, Roxxi growled with bared fangs as she leapt to guard her partner, reaching to absorb the fire from Inari's fists!
"Trust in me." Galiana's telepathy reassured her again. As if on cue, the roar was promptly cut short. Galiana had wrapped her whip around her upper chest, cutting off her air supply and slamming her into the ground back first with surprising strength for the petite forest fairy.
Inari smirked, and readied the coup de grace for the reeling ice mammoth pig. She rocketed forth and nailed the Mamoswine between the eyes with an all-out explosive haymaker. The back of his skull slammed against the ground, and he laid sprawled and out cold upon impact with the hard arena floor.
Inari landed in a skidding crouch in front of the fallen icy behemoth shortly thereafter, panting heavily. Despite her weariness, she looked over her shoulder with a fiery gaze.
Having broken free, about to square off with Galiana when the behemoth came crashing down, Roxxi growled lowly. "You haven't won yet, and you look like you're on your last legs, hot stuff." Her grimace curled into a smirk, as her rage gave way to sadistic confidence. "Me? I'm just getting warmed up." The stones binding each pigtail sparkled.
Before Inari could get a closer look, a scintillating prism of light engulfed the arena, overwhelming her senses with overwhelming power - the sort that choked the very air with its nigh-suffocating levels.
When the light subsided. Roxxi was donning a bone breastplate that seemed to be a modified skull of a much larger creature, and her horns added another head to her height. Her pauldrons were made of ivory tusks. Her tail become less of a spearhead and more like its own devilish two-pronged pitchfork.
In the face of this powerful enemy, Inari took a step back, her teeth clenched in uneasiness. Who could blame her? She was up against a Mega-Houndoom.