The Burden of Power:
Daisy, Marut, and Andrew hurried up through the open fields of the Donut Plains, the echoing roars getting louder the further north they ran. The rest of their team followed from way back and spread out to cover the areas off to the sides that the lead Kruna ignored. Ramona's Pendant of Detection hummed and vibrated stronger and stronger as they continued up the plains.
Suddenly, Daisy yelled, "Stop!" She shifted sideways to put on the brakes, and Marut and Andrew did the same to come to a halt at her left and right. They glanced all around at the apparent graveyard they had run up to, the growling sounding off louder than ever.
"It's coming from the ground!" Andrew said, leaning forward to listen in.
"Come on out!" Daisy yelled. She pulled back a fist charged with seismic energy and punched the ground. The entirety of the graveyard shook and rumbled like waves tearing through the ocean. The other Kruna ran up just in time to see the tail end of the shockwave tremoring underneath the small collection of tombstones.
"What did you do?" an agitated Warra asked Daisy.
"I'm just trying to draw out whoever's making that growling!" Daisy barked at him.
"Well, it hasn't responded to that microquake," said Andrew. "Maybe you knocked it unconscious?"
"Oh, that won't do us any good!" Daisy muttered, pulling her arms to the side and angling her torso at the ground. "If that thing's got any Crystal Tears, we can't get to him if he's out cold in the ground."
"Now what are you doing?" asked Warra.
Daisy charged more seismic earth energy through her hands. "Clear the area – I'm tunneling in-"
As soon as she said that, a pink light emerged from underground and flared up through the dirt several yards in front of the Kruna. A long, spindly arm burst free from the light and clawed at the barren soil to anchor itself. The body the arm pulled out sprang up quick and greeted the eight elemental wielders with the ear-jarring roar they had been hearing since the raider attack.
The Kruna covered their ears as the light disappeared to reveal the source of the horrid sounds. A goat-headed, yellow-eyed, spindly fiend stood before them in a red and black cloak with a massive cleaver sword sporting a gunmetal gray horn instrument attached and perpendicular to the blade hilt. The horn instrument looked like a smaller, less dramatic version of the two thick and wild horns coming out of his head.
"That must be Dark Summoner..." Ramona whispered.
"Ya sure it's not a baby Yoshi?" Neva said with a frown.
"DIEEEEEEEEEE!" the demon screamed, slashing at the air with his free hand. A wave of pink energy flew out from his swipe and barreled over the Kruna. The attack brought down all eight of the wielders and cleared them away from the fiend in an instant.
"Is that weak to you?" Warra asked Daisy, propping himself up on his hands.
Daisy flipped back to her feet. "I guess we shouldn't've stood so close."
"Really?" Bowser muttered. "That's your takeaway from this?"
"DIEEEEEEEEEE!" Dark Summoner howled again. He levitated into the air, no feet hanging out from underneath his cloak, and flew at the recovering Kruna. Athelstan swung his hulking Obelisk Swordstaff to block the demon's incoming swing of his own weapon. The massive upward counter swing from Athelstan knocked the Dark Summoner off balance as a result of the potent force the stone wielder produced. Further enraged, Dark Summoner roared again and swung his sword around in a sweeping motion. He rode the momentum to spin around into a fierce, continuous rotation and flew at the Kruna with this revolving attack.
"Get out of the way!" Warra called out, staying put. The other seven Kruna leapt away as Warra grabbed the rod of his Tidal Swordstaff. Dark Summoner continued to fly at him with his vicious spin attack, though Warra stood at the ready to counter.
"He's gotta get the timing right," Bowser said.
Just as the Dark Summoner got close enough, Warra pulled out his swordstaff and swung at him. He did no damage to the demon, but his counter maneuver proved effective in defending against and breaking through such a fast moving attack. Dark Summoner flipped further up into the air before he recovered from the recoil of the blade collision.
Holding up his sword, Dark Summoner charged a dense amount of energy into the blade, giving it a bright pink glow. With a twist of his weapon, he fell out of the air and slammed the sword onto the graveyard floor, creating a shockwave far too quick for any of the Kruna to defend against. Being the furthest one away at the time, only Bowser avoided taking damage from the hit. Retreating into his shell offered an excellent defense against the concussive energy. Just as soon as he felt the last of the energy push past him, Bowser spun out of his shell and onto the offensive.
Dark Summoner parried and charged more power through his sword as Bowser ran up with his Blazer Claws out. With a hard clang, the two began an exchange of sweeps, swipes, and blocks with the metal of their respective tools. Dark Summoner had the height advantage even without his added levitation. As he dodged, blocked, and attacked, Bowser couldn't tell if the Dark Summoner was smiling, frowning, or incapable of expression altogether.
Bowser blocked a swing, batted away a stab, threw out a slash, caught a counter-slash with his free claw, threw out a counter to the counter – all resulting in metal-on-metal contact. The other Kruna got ready to provide backup but held off on interfering. Then, against one hard down swing, Bowser caught the attack overhead with both of his Blazer Claws. Locked in, Bowser flared fire around his claws and slashed up and out. The maneuver wrenched free the Dark Summoner's blade and sent it flying off to the side of the graveyard.
Roaring once more, Dark Summoner shifted in a blur back and far away from Bowser. The demon held out his hand, ripping his sword around the side of the graveyard and back into his grip through telekinetic means. Bowser and Warra signaled to the other Kruna to remain spread out.
"See? Not a problem!" Daisy shouted at Warra. "We're doing fine so far, wouldn't you say?"
"DIEEEEEEEEEE!" Dark Summoner screamed again.
"Is 'die' all he knows how to say?" said Neva.
Dark Summoner held up his sword and blew through the horn on its hilt. The short tune he played reverberated in all directions and sounded unlike any known mortal instrument in existence. Immediately after he stopped playing his horn, cracking, cackling, and clattering became audible from an unseen source.
"Oh, I have a bad feeling about this," Warra muttered, shaking his head.
Dark Bones erupted from under the ground in front of the Dark Summoner. Fifty of them. Another thirty popped-up out of the ground some distance behind the Kruna just seconds later.
"KIIIIIILL!" Dark Summoner screamed at the Dark Bones.
"Hey, look at that," said Athelstan. "He knows two words!"
"Oh boy, undead things..." Ramona mumbled. "Creepy, limping, rotting dead things moving around like they're not dead..."
"We got them coming from the front and the rear," said Warra. "Five of us up front! The other three, handle the back!"
The Dark Bones broke into lumbering runs at the Kruna. Marut, Athelstan, and Daisy turned around to take care of the Dark Bones coming from the south while the others confronted the ones originating from Dark Summoner's position. As the Kruna did battle with the Dark Bones, Dark Summoner played his horn again. The demon's tune played differently this time.
Marut dug one end of his Dragon Bladestaff into the ground and swung around it with his feet out to dismantle the Dark Bones surrounding him. When he came to a stop however, he saw portals opening up in front of the Dark Summoner through which Broozers and Doppel ghosts flew out. Not only that, but the Dark Bones he and the other Kruna had already destroyed were starting to put themselves back together.
"KIIIIIILL!" Dark Summoner screamed at the sixty ghosts.
Ramona fired a large portion of light energy at Bowser, who caught it in his hands, condensed it with his fire, mixed the two elements together, and then cast the flames around himself to encase his body in an aura of fiery light energy. Brilliantly shining in multicolored strobe-effect flashes, Rainbow Bowser tore along the ground and rammed into the Dark Bones, Broozers, and Doppels around him and nearby the other Kruna up front. Neva's Alkemei Hien had copied Dark Summoner's shockwave attack from earlier, so while Rainbow Bowser took down enemies on one side of the graveyard, Neva ran away from the rest of her team and drew enemies over to the other side. She charged her Blizzard Bladestaff and slammed it on the ground to release Dark Summoner's space-clearing shockwave attack on the enemies closing in on her.
The Dark Summoner blew on his horn yet again, producing four more portals on the south end of the graveyard for more Broozers and Doppels to appear out of. The mass amount of enemies force the Kruna to regroup in the center. The Dark Bones kept reassembling, and Broozers and Doppels kept flying out of the portals to replace the defeated ghosts.
"Well this sure escalated quick!" Andrew spat out as he dealt a multithrust on nearby enemies.
"How many of these things is he gonna bring here?" said Marut, swinging at the Dark Bones lumbering at him.
Bowser dashed in a large circle around the Kruna to take out as many enemies as he could and buy some time until his rainbow power-up ran out. He then fell back to the other Kruna to recover and let the others go on the offensive.
"SHOTGUN!" Daisy screamed, thrusting her open palm forward. Seismic power poured from her hand in wide waves to ripple through the Dark Bones in front of her, while Andrew put out a twisting, winding Gemivado shadow wave to clear out enemies offset her. Coincidentally, the short but sideways sweeping range of Daisy's elemental attack angled into where Andrew had just released his and cleared out a large partition of the foes caught in the Kruna of Shadow's darkness.
"Back off, Daisy!" barked Andrew. "Those were mine – go find your own!"
Daisy only laughed and stuck her tongue out at him as she stomped her foot on the ground to prepare another technique. Though Daisy's and Andrew's attacks took out a great deal of enemies, more Dark Bones burrowed out from underneath the ground. The amount of enemies around the Kruna skyrocketed well into the hundreds before long. It seemed whatever Dark Bones they destroyed rebuilt themselves moments later, and whatever Broozers and Doppels they vanquished got replaced by more flying out of the portals.
"If this was a video game, the frame rate would be dropping like mad right about now," mumbled Marut.
"They're resisting my ice!" asked Neva. "I coat them in the stuff and they just break free!"
"DIEEEEEEEEEE!" Dark Summoner roared.
"What – you wanna play monopoly?!" Andrew yelled at the demon.
"Hey, Daisy; how about using that pendant of yours, hmm?" asked Neva.
"I've got a better idea!" Daisy replied. She leapt into the air and somersaulted to propel into the middle of a mounting sea of undead creatures and pulled her charged right hand back. Upon landing, she palmed the ground and devastated a large faction of Dark Bones and ghosts with her Crystal Smash. She then dashed at a nearby group and made so mighty of an Iaido slash with her Terra Bladestaff that the Dark Bones taking the brunt of the hit not only broke down but fractured and fragmented.
"How is that better?!" Neva snapped. "Just use the damn pendant already!"
"We can't just take them apart," Daisy said. "We gotta actually break those parts, see? Bet they can't reassemble if they're too shattered!"
"Oh, big frickin' whoop!" yelled Neva. "You did all that to annihilate four of them when there's hundreds more!"
Ramona released the bending, convex light rays of her Photovado on one group of enemies, and Marut threw out the slashing gusts of his Aerovado on another group. Warra added the ultra-pressurized waters of his Aquavado; and Athelstan, having gathered a wealth of rocks overhead, launched them at incoming enemies with his rapid-fire Povado technique. Unfortunately, as has proved to be the case with all the Kruna's attacks, their efforts only pushed back and stalled the advance of the undead.
"Our Vado blasts seem to be covering the most area," said Warra. "But they're still not getting us anywhere! Daisy, we need you to use your Orianthi!"
The Dark Summoner must have noticed the stalemate developing, for he blew into his horn yet again. Bowser's Alkemei alerted him to the massive portal opening up in the skies high overhead. Twenty Greapers floated out and hovered in the air, drifting in a circle several hundreds of yards overtop of the Kruna.
"We're running out of time, Daisy!" Bowser snapped. "Use your Alkemei! We'll surround you and hold them off while you activate it!"
"No – I can't manipulate the dead in such a way!" Daisy yelled. "We shouldn't have control over life or death – or the undead for that matter! It's wrong and immoral!"
"You think he cares?!" Neva barked, pointing at Dark Summoner.
Marut shot lightning out of his hand, only to find it almost completely ineffective against the undead creatures. "Alright! Now I know that won't work..."
"Look, Daisy; I don't like the thought of such a power either," said Andrew. "But if you don't do something with it, then we're all gonna be undead ourselves!"
"KIIIILL!" Dark Summoner screamed at the Greapers in the sky. The Greapers raised their scythes and did some sort of eerie aerial dance as they continued their circular hover. Eight colossal skeletal feet eased out of the portal the Greapers danced under. The legs attached to those feet then slowly descended from the portal, followed by two titanic skeletal bodies that cast shadows on the graveyard below. When Ramona and Neva looked up, they saw two skeletal mammoth Mastadooms – each one many times the size of Bowser and Athelstan combined – hanging out of the portal high above.
"If those huge skeletons land on the ground, we're all done for!" Ramona cried.
More urgent than ever, Neva screamed at Daisy. "Use your Alkemei, you fool!"
Daisy grimaced and tried to think of anything that could possibly get them out of their plight, but she came up with nothing. Going through and obliterating each Dark Bones creature would take far too much time, and the ghosts flying in from what seemed like every direction were a whole nother problem altogether. The Mastadooms overhead floated ever closer to the ground with each passing moment.
"Firestorm Thunder!" Bowser, Warra, and Marut yelled. Combining their fire, water, and air, they spawned a whirling cyclone of chaotic flames, water tendrils, and ripping gale winds. They dragged their elemental torrent in a circle all around the Kruna twice and then threw it back and forth along several parts of the graveyard floor. When their powers waned and the cyclone withered, a sizable gap existed where the three Kruna had pulled their elemental combo. Of course, the space created between the Kruna and the undead horde once again shrank as the Dark Bones rebuilt themselves and as more Broozers and Doppels flew out from the portals.
"We've got nothing left to attack with," Warra said, glancing at Daisy. "It's all on you now."
"Unless you think you can do something special in Nova Form, you have to use your pendant!" Bowser said.
Nova Form's not gonna help much at all here, Daisy thought, sighing as she clutched her Alkemei Orianthi. ...That just leaves...
"Just do it already!" Neva screamed.
Daisy's Alkemei Orianthi lit up and glowed as she tapped into its power. She felt the scope of her consciousness expanding and branching out from her body, almost as if she would consume anything she enforced her influence on.
I can take over the dead and breathe new life into them, Daisy said in her mind. She scanned the area and watched her friends fight off incoming enemies. The problem is that it doesn't look like there are any available bodies that aren't empty...
Then Daisy looked at the Dark Summoner, who was staring at her and the other Kruna. She looked back around at the hordes of Dark Bones, Broozers, and Doppels; then she gazed at the Greapers and the Mastadooms high in the sky. The skeletal mammoths, though being lowered down by the Greapers, appeared inanimate and under no direct influence.
I already hate doing this... Daisy hissed in thought. She raised her arms to guide her consciousness up high overhead. Come on... Bend to my will...
The Kruna of Earth immediatelyfelt some interference coming from Dark Summoner and the Greapers. When a few moments passed and nothing happened, Warra looked at Daisy and noticed her focus on the Mastadooms overhead. He glanced around at the other Kruna fending off the undead horde, then up at the Mastadooms, then back at Daisy, then at the Dark Summoner, and finally back at Daisy again before he figured out what was going on.
"Marut, take out the Greapers overhead!" Warra yelled. "Neva! Dark Summoner!"
Marut unlimbered his Gust Boomerangs and flung them up with extra wind to disrupt the Greapers and send them spinning away from the Mastadooms. As Marut attacked, Neva readied her crossbow and made a high jump. She shot an ice arrow at Dark Summoner, who did not seem to expect any of the Kruna to direct their focus away from the enemies in front of them to try and assault him. As a result, Neva caught him off guard with her arrow that pierced into his left upper chest and knocked him to the ground.
The Mastadooms plummeted out of the air, threatening to crush the Kruna with their weight. Athelstan ripped a boulder out from the ground outside the graveyard and launched it at one Mastadoom to get it to divert its fall. Ramona tapped just enough into her difficult-to-use, light wielder-native telekinesis to redirect the other Mastadoom's momentum away from the Kruna, managing to crush a handful of Dark Bones under the skeletal mammoth's weight in the process. The many other undead creatures stopped their forward movement and waited in place.
Dark Summoner got up in time to see Daisy turn around only far enough to stare him down. Her Alkemei Orianthi now had a sustained low glow. The Dark Summoner pulled the ice arrow out of his body and blew his horn to assert control over the Mastadooms, only for his own influence to get blocked himself. Judging by her fierce poker face, Daisy possessed total control over the mammoth skeletons and had no intention of relinquishing it. The Dark Summoner had spread himself too thin through his control over all the other undead creatures to override her.
The Mastadooms rose up, high and mighty over the hordes. Daisy cupped her hands on her arms and stared at the skeletal mammoths, uttering the simple phrase, "Crush all the Dark Bones."
The Mastadooms did as they were told, proceeding to smash, grind, and pulverize all the Dark Bones in their way. Dark Summoner directed all his undead creatures to attack the Mastadooms with a special hand sign and utterance of a word from an unknown language. Though the Broozers and Doppels engaged the Mastadooms, the skeletal mammoths ignored them and focused only on the Dark Bones beneath them. None of the Dark Bones or ghosts could do any significant damage to the Mastadooms.
"Wow, they do exactly as she says," murmured Bowser. "They're focusing on the Dark Bones and not even acknowledging the existence of the Broozers or Doppels."
"They're the perfect, obedient slaves," Warra mumbled in astonishment. He gazed at Daisy's blank expression. It was hard to tell what was going through her mind or just how much focus she put on controlling the Mastadooms. No matter how much the Alkemei Orianthi turns out helping in all this, I'm sure she's probably hating every second of using it, Warra thought.
"KIIIILL!" Dark Summoner yelled.
"Daisy! Behind you!" Bowser screamed.
Daisy clutched her Terra Bladestaff and pulled it out in a wicked, spin draw attack on the incoming Greapers. She batted six of them away on the first swing, then dished out more swipes with her staff to fend off the other fourteen. Just as she slashed the last one away, Dark Summoner sent a bolt of concussive energy at her. Daisy didn't turn around to see it in time, but Warra did and promptly stepped in to deflect the pink burst upward.
Luckily, Daisy kept enough concentration on the Mastadooms during that exchange to maintain control over them. As the Mastadooms continued obliterating the Dark Bones, Dark Summoner charged at Warra. Tidal Swordstaff in his hands, Warra swung and clashed with Dark Summoner's sword.
"Don't pay any mind to me!" Warra said to Daisy. "Just keep control over the skeletons!"
Warra faltered under Dark Summoner's strength and got knocked to the side, too fatigued to put up more resistance. Athelstan ran at Dark Summoner before the demon reached Daisy and slammed his left foot into him, his Alkemei Odina compounding with his Boot Club Additions for a brutal hit. Before he flew too far, Dark Summoner expelled some energy around him to stop his momentum; but the force of the hit jarred him enough to break his focus on all the portals in the graveyard. With the portals gone, reinforcement ghosts stopped flooding in.
By this time, the Mastadooms had flattened all but a few squadrons of Dark Bones. The Broozers and Doppels continued attacking the giant skeletons, but to no success. Dark Summoner knew that he had to get to Daisy and disrupt her control over the Mastadooms to regain control of the battle, but Athelstan and Ramona stood in his way; and not far from them, Andrew and Neva stood ready and poised to attack. Bowser, Marut, and Warra had no energy left and were fatigued, but they were not out.
Daisy pointed at the ghosts once the Mastadooms finished off the last of the Dark Bones. "Destroy the Broozers, Doppels, and any remaining Greapers lurking around here."
The Mastadooms obeyed the command from their master and attacked the ghosts. They rammed into the spectres, using their legs, skulls, and tusks as weapons. Even though none of the ghosts had any chance, they fought the Mastadooms in complete compliance with Dark Summoner's last command.
Dark Summoner readied his horn to blow another tune, but before he could, Neva shot an ice arrow into the instrument, rendering it unplayable. Emitting yet another one of its roars, the Dark Summoner swung his sword around and slammed it on the ground to blast a vertical concussive slash her way. Athelstan stepped in front of Neva and bashed his swordstaff into the incoming attack, only for him and Neva to get knocked back from the concussion recoil when he made contact.
Dark Summoner then rose into the air above the graveyard, charging his sword with more power to strike once more. But he stopped. As he looked around, he found nothing left of his undead army but withered ghost bodies and crushed, crumbled bones. His line of sight shifted to Daisy, who didn't even glance at him when she pointed her finger at him.
The Kruna cleared out of the way as the Mastadooms lumbered toward the floating Dark Summoner. His sword still charged with power, Dark Summoner flew at the Mastadooms and swung his sword at the one up front, only for the skeletal mammoth to block with its tusks. Swinging its head around, the Mastadoom stabbed one of its tusks into the Dark Summoner and jerked its head to fling the demon face-down onto the ground.
By the time Dark Summoner rolled over, all he saw was the bottom of the other Mastadoom's foot as it came down to stomp on him. And then he didn't see anything; nor even had anything to see out of. Their task complete, the Mastadooms held their position and awaited for further commands.
"Thank you," Daisy wearily said to the Mastadooms. She took a deep breath and shut her Alkemei off. The Mastadooms then froze and became inanimate once again.
Ramona's Alkemei stopped vibrating and now gave off a hard, slow-rhythm flash brighter than any of its previous illuminations. She looked ahead and saw five shining pieces of crystalline material scattered around the Dark Summoner's mangled body and the Mastadoom leg still on top of him. Marut ran over to scoop up the pieces and brought them back to the group.
"Five Crystal Tears," said Ramona, taking the rose gold drops from Marut. Each one looked to be no bigger than the size of one of her fingernails, yet they looked unique in their contours and shape. Once the tears were in her possession, her Alkemei Motomeru went back to its normal low glow state.
"Whew, that was a close one!" said Athelstan. "I thought we were done there! Like, D-U-N – 'done!' It looked really bad!"
"I think we all might have thought that," said Bowser. "Even if only for a second." He peered over at Daisy, who stared blankly at her hands with a soft frown.
"Exceptional work to pull that one off, everyone," said Warra. "A close call, but a hard-fought victory for all of us nonethe-"
Warra paused when he heard a few loud cracks. The other Kruna turned and looked at the Mastadooms. The bones of the skeletal mammoths had shifted some, resulting in the noise as they continued to shift some more. When a couple of torso bones fell to the ground, other parts of the Mastadooms became unsteady and wobbled.
"Everybody, back off from the mammoths!" Athelstan yelled.
The Kruna darted out of the graveyard and up the field. Moments later, they heard a loud crash and glanced back to see half of one Mastadoom crumbling and falling apart. Then, a larger amount of the second Mastadoom collapsed inwards.
"And with that, doesn't look like we're going to that graveyard again," said Daisy.
"What an absolute mess," said Ramona.
"That's bound to draw out some more unwanted passersby," said Warra. "We should leave this part of the Donut Plains and look for an open area a little further up north where we won't attract any more hostile attention. Then I'll radio-in for the Koopa Cruiser."