Sky Arena: Gargoyle Nukpana Phase Two:
Nukpana stood in his new form, power oozing outwards. Almost all of the damage he received from Bowser had vanished, and there was no trace or evidence of any of the attacks that the Koopa King made apart from a few scratches and almost unnoticeable scars.
"This form must be very powerful to warrant almost dying just so he could access it," said Warra.
"This form must be in the realm of the forbidden if it warrants almost dying just to be able to use it," Daisy added.
"Bowser doesn't have a chance," Grekka suddenly said. His statement garnered the attention of all the Moirai that stood with him up at the top level.
"Are you sure about that?" Athelstan asked. "I don't think we can say something like that so soon, right?"
Bowser's claws crackled with flames, the standoff with the newly formed Nukpana growing tenser with each passing second. Compared to just moments ago, the fiend looked none the worse from the lethal attacks that he endured from the Koopa King.
"Not only does my body heal and regenerate back to baseline, but I receive a substantial boost in power," Nukpana said. "Enough to render all six of you helpless against my might."
"I find that hard to believe in spite of your art show you just displayed," Bowser spat out. "Forgive me for being a skeptic."
"I can guarantee you that the awakening of this form has all but sealed each of your fates," said Nukpana. "This form was locked away in my body for centuries. Elkon convinced me that in fighting for him, I would almost certainly be able to unseal this form from its prison through confrontation with the destined warriors. I am quite pleased with the results."
"You're welcome," Bowser nonchalantly said. "But that doesn't mean you're going to win."
"Oh, yes it does," Nukpana whispered back. "Don't believe me? Observe."
The gargoyle flapped its wings and took off high into the sky, highlighted by the constant lightning that flashed every second on average. He began to rapidly twirl his body in midair and wrap himself inside of a pseudo-tornado, then dove back down and made a beeline straight for Bowser. The Moirai of Fire quickly turned his shell to deflect the streaking whirlwind back up into the air, only for the twister to reach an apex and redirect back at the Koopa King. Bowser deflected again with his shell, this time sending the revolving gargoyle sideways. A massive windstorm resulted in the bottom floor from Nukpana's rapid rotations that knocked Bowser off his feet, leaving him wide open to attack.
Nukpana erratically encircled the arena before aiming himself at Bowser. Still with the tornado around him, he lifted the koopa off of his feet and brought him skyward high above the room. At this point, with both of them high in the air, Nukpana dispelled his winds and did a somersault that whipped his tail around and smacked Bowser back down into the arena. The koopa broke his velocity in midair by use of his Whirling Fortress maneuver to dispel his momentum and allow a landing with minimal shock. He then began to focus an extraordinarily high amount of fire energy in his mouth and spat out multiple expanding balls of fire at the flying creature. One giant flap of Nukpana's wings created a wickedly strong gust of wind that caused the incoming fire to die out in midair. Through the ensuing smoke, Nukpana dove down again in another pseudo-tornado and caught Bowser off guard, slamming into the koopa and sending him flying across the room. Nukpana flew with Bowser and grabbed a hold of him as they headed towards the wall. The gargoyle spun around twice to generate torsion force and threw Bowser at the ground before they reached the wall, then made a landing on the wall itself and rebounded off of it to stay airborne.
The lightning in the sky began to become a bit more violent. In a strange move, Nukpana flew up high into the air to draw and get hit by a stray lightning strike. Amazingly, the gargoyle was not harmed from the lightning and proceeded to descend and land back in the arena. Bowser got up and charged a sphere of flames in his right claw, then shot it off at the demon who made a swift, long leap sideways to avoid the attack. Bowser charged another sphere in his left claw and fired off that one just to see Nukpana dodge it as well.
"Your aim is as broad as your shell," Nukpana taunted with disinterest. "Can you at least try to hit me next time?"
"Why you louse!" Bowser growled, charging up another flaming sphere, this one larger than the previous two. At the firing of this sphere, Nukpana shielded himself with his humongous wings. After the block, the demon thrust himself at Bowser and latched onto the koopa's wrist using his tail. Nukpana swung his tail upwards and threw the koopa high into the air, then took off in pursuit. Bowser had to have been over five hundred yards above the gemstone room by the time he stopped rising, and Nukpana was right up next to him in mere seconds.
Bowser reignited his flaming hands to attack while he hand a chance. The cross he threw missed as Nukpana twirled out of the way. The second cross missed again, Nukpana edging out of the way as the fist came through in a similar manner to the first. Bowser slammed both hands together and blasted the flames around his hands at Nukpana, though the gargoyle flipped himself up in time and the blast went soaring off into the distance. Bowser quickly flared more fire around his claws and stuck both arms straight out to perform a weaponless Spin Attack, catching the gargoyle in the jaw and sending him downwards. In one smooth transition, he chained the Spin Attack into another Tavado blast aimed at the plummeting gargoyle that also served to momentarily stop the koopa's downward momentum. The fires made contact with the gargoyle and created a massive puff of smoke. As Bowser fell though the smoke, Nukpana quickly recovered and circled around to the bottom of the fiery cloud to catch the koopa and fling him high up into the air again.
"This battle's making me nauseous..." Daisy moaned as she stared up.
Before meeting Bowser, Nukpana made another unorthodox move by drawing another bolt of lightning towards himself. Again, he was unharmed and continued up to the apex of Bowser's ascent.
"Stop with this aerial crap!" Bowser yelled as he made a somersault kick to stomp down on the incoming demon. The hard hit to the head sent Nukpana fluttering downwards, but only for a couple seconds as he twirled out of the hitstun and angled himself back at the now descending koopa. Flying at him much faster, Nukpana rose up like a missile and clipped Bowser in his side to put him into an awkward tailspin. Nukpana turned around to aim himself at his fast falling opponent and again made himself into a pseudo-tornado. The demon soon was up on Bowser and caught him within the whirlwinds to force him down into the ground even faster.
As they came crashing down into the floor, Nukpana dispelled the twister and made a hard curve back up into the air. Bowser slammed hard into the ground, causing much of his vitality to fade. Nukpana ascended back up into the air and took another bolt of lightning before dropping all the way back down to rest his feet on the Plexiglas floor.
Why does he keep going up in the air to let himself get struck by that lightning storm? Warra thought. Unless... Oh...now I believe I see...
Bowser struggled to stand up. The repeated aerial bouts and the crash landing evoked unrelenting jarring in his head and body. Nukpana stood not too far away with his arms crossed in contentment.
"Do you still believe that my idle state earlier was foolish and that you will prevail in this battle?" Nukpana asked.
"Yes," Bowser said, charging immense amounts of fire energy in his palms that created glowing orange and white orbs. The moment he brought his hands forward and together, a beam of plasma emerged and shot out at Nukpana. The demon took the hit head on, caught off guard by the magnitude of the attack. His body tumbled backwards clear across the middle of the room before coming to a stop near a corner, but didn't stay down for long. After regaining his footing, Nukpana shot vertically into the air yet again to take another hit from a lightning strike.
"Alright," Bowser muttered. "This guy has to be a masochist. I'm certain of it now."
"It's just as I thought," Grekka said, somber in tone.
"Bowser's in trouble; one of us has to take over now!" Athelstan urged.
"Let me fight him!" Marut asserted. "I fight my best in the air!"
"No, Marut," Warra quickly said. "If you try and face him, you'll only make him stronger. He seems to be drawing power from the storms, so any lightning technique you use on him will do nothing but empower him even more, and I doubt that any sort of standard air attack would be sufficient enough to bring him down." At the conclusion of his statement, Warra jumped down from out of the perimeter hallway to join Bowser. Nukpana did not hurry in his downward descent, seeing that a lull in action had developed.
"Bowser," said Warra. "Do you think you'll be able to beat this demon?"
"To be honest, no," Bowser murmured. "I don't have much energy left, but I don't need him to hear that."
"Withdraw," Warra then said, calm and without hesitation. "I'll stand in and finish."
"Are you sure?" asked Bowser. "You've seen what this guy is capable of doing."
"I don't think any one of us can overpower this demon, to be frank," stated the Moirai of Water.
"Is that so?" the Koopa King asked. "Then how do you suggest going about beating this gargoyle?"
"I have an idea that may work," said Warra. "But if it doesn't work, then we'll just have to see what happens. As it stands now though, it's the best possible chance we have of beating Nukpana."
Bowser nodded and turned to the flight of stairs in the corner behind him to ascend to the perimeter hallway above. Warra stood and calmly readied himself for combat as Nukpana returned to the ground.
"What's this? Substitutions?" Nukpana asked. "It makes no difference. You'll all fall sooner or later. Then I shall return to the surface and ravage the lands the way I was supposed to before my true form was sealed inside me."
Warra ignored the remark, instead giving one of his own. "It's pretty interesting that Elkon would enlist someone like you who seems to just want to conquer and dominate the planet. I wonder if maybe he's just using you..."
"If he is, then no matter," said Nukpana. "Now that I have my full power in my control again, I will hunt him down for his deception."
"Well, that's neither here nor there," Warra replied. "It was just a thought of mine that I had."
"Warra, I hope you know what you're doing," Athelstan said under his breath.
"Grekka," said Daisy. "You beat Vodyanoy without issue, so how well do you think you stack up against Nukpana?"
Grekka paused for a few moments, trying to figure out an accurate estimate based on what Nukpana had shown and how much energy the fiend was emitting. "I could beat him," he then said. "It wouldn't be as swift as it was against that creature at Delight City, but I'm certain I would eventually beat him."
"Really?!" Daisy exclaimed. "You're kidding!"
"Then since you're the most powerful one here, why didn't you go down and take Bowser's place?" Athelstan asked.
"Warra made the move," said Grekka as Bowser rejoined the group. "So let's see what he can do."
The lightning in the sky ramped up its frequency and intensity, contrasting with the funnel clouds that were increasing in number and now billowing through the air in a slow descent into the troposphere. Nukpana stared down the Moirai of Water with intrigue, wondering what the man in blue was up to. If I'm not mistaken, this one's power is actually just slightly lower than the fire wielder, the gargoyle thought. What is their rationale for sending him down next? Very interesting...
I'll test him out first to see if my idea would work, Warra thought. I should also do my best to stay on the ground as much as I can. The last thing I need is to get hurled up into the air where he'll have the advantage.
An eerie silence momentarily developed in the arena. The only sounds that could be heard came from the thunder and whirlwinds overhead. Warra stood in a rather balanced stance, awaiting any advances or sudden movements from the powerful demon.
"Please explain to me why you are facing me now," Nukpana requested.
He knows that I'm not the most powerful one of the group, the Moirai of Water thought. That means he'll be impatient in dealing with me. He's probably aware that Grekka's the biggest threat and was therefore expecting him to jump down here. Well, if my idea works, then it doesn't matter how powerful you actually are, Nukpana, nor does it matter how much more powerful you are than I. He then said to the gargoyle, "I'm facing you now because I'm pretty certain that I can take you down."
"Then elaborate on what you could do that could possibly be a threat to me," said Nukpana.
"I won't," said Warra. "But I will say this..." He began focusing his elemental energy into his palms, although he took care not to actually conjure water.
"It looks like Warra is going to try and draw upon the advanced form of water," Grekka said from above.
"So what does that entail?" Athelstan asked. "I've never actually seen it before from any water wielder."
"Just watch," said Grekka. "Or rather, just listen."
"Water is highly involved with vibrations and the transference of such," Warra said while continuing to build upon his collected energy. "And vibrations result in the production of sound, hence the properties of this upcoming attack."
Nukpana grunted in distaste, but had no chance for reaction once Warra struck the palms of his hands together. A concussive wave battered Nukpana and assaulted his eardrums with a short but intense bout of ultra-high volume rumbling, forcing him onto his back and temporarily ruining his sense of hearing. For a few moments afterwards, all the gargoyle could hear was a persistent ringing. He stood up once the ringing began to subside, flustered that the attack was so quick.
Warra smiled at his handiwork. "And since compressional waves move faster in water, a sonic attack can be even more instantaneous than it already is. However, since you were relatively close, I opted to not add any water and just let the sonic wave move through the air to allow me to conserve energy for later on. Using sonics drains a considerable amount of power, as do most of the advanced forms of elements."
"Very impressive," Nukpana complimented. "I for one, however, believe that the only sounds that should be heard so audibly-" He took off for Warra and gave an unblockable double spin kick to the water wielder, who subsequently skidded along the ground after contact but managed to bounce back to his feet. "...Are the sounds of anguish and suffering produced by humans," the gargoyle finished.
"He didn't seem to be too pleased about that last one," said Athelstan.
"I wouldn't either," said Bowser. "Warra must've turned a heavy metal concert into a projectile."
The lightning had become so frequent and intense that it threatened to strike down to the floor of the gemstone room. As time continued to elapse, the lightning increased in erratic violence. Nukpana however, did not seem to mind.
I have to land another attack on him, Warra thought. That should be enough to see if my idea will be effective... He began concentrating his energy again, except this time into only one of his palms. Nukpana got ready to strike and sprung forward at Warra with a fist that cut through the air. Warra swiftly maneuvered out of the way and then evaded the gargoyle's followup cross from the opposite hand by leaping back a couple times. Nukpana swung his tail around and knocked Warra in his head, causing the Moirai of Water to stumble backwards even further. Despite that, Warra kept the energy charged in his hand and leapt forward to land a palm strike on Nukpana's sternum. The hit was not forceful at all, but was somehow sufficient enough to leave the demon gagging on his knees. The shock on Nukpana's face came more from the surprise of the effectiveness of the attack than anything else.
"Why did that hurt so much?!" Nukpana gasped.
"It's my favorite technique," said Warra. "The Focus Palm. I concentrate energy on a single point in the palm of my hand, and as that point makes contact during an attack, the energy enters and spreads throughout the target, just as a drop of water vibrates outwards in a pond."
Nukpana quickly got back to his feet. "You are a very enthralling fighter indeed," the demon said in praise. "Skilled...tactical...efficient... If your power was more substantial, then your moves would actually be a danger to me..."
The gargoyle made a massive hop backwards and then leapt into the air to draw lightning to himself once more. Warra paid special attention to how Nukpana seemed to leave himself wide open to the strike, absorb it in its entirety, and then touchdown on the ground, displaying that the Moirai of Water's Focus Palm and Sonic Clap were both quickly forgotten.
"That's exactly what I wanted to see," Warra murmured.
"Warra is very cunning," said Grekka.
"What do you mean?" Marut asked.
It's as I thought, Warra said in his mind. He's somehow able to draw power from the lightning, and in doing so is able to replenish his own energy as well as rejuvenate and even strengthen himself. So as long as he has the lightning on his side, he's practically invulnerable now...but this next move should exploit that to its fullest...and secure the victory for us...
"You try that Focus Palm again, I'm snapping your hands off," Nukpana coldly declared.
"Don't worry, I have just the thing for you," said Warra. "You're gonna love this; trust me."Drawing from the dense humidity of the atmosphere, Warra began to form several spherical bundles of water scattered about around him. This will be a simple tactic, he thought. But I'll have to do it quick to make sure that I don't take myself out in the process as well.
"I fail to see what you hope to accomplish by surrounding yourself with random spheres of water," Nukpana said with annoyance as Warra kept molding more water spheres.
"He's taking advantage of the lightning storm," said Grekka.
"He is?!" Bowser asked. "But how?"
"Warra is concentrating all the ever-increasing humidity in the air into several separate orbs of water," Grekka explained. "He's trying to gather as much as he can focus."
"I don't get it," said Marut. "What does that have to do with the lightning?"
"Nothing at the moment," Grekka replied. "But just watch what happens when he pulls all the water together."
What occurred next happened in under just a few seconds. Once he had accumulated enough orbs of water, Warra quickly pulled all the masses of fluid into one ultra-concentrated sphere no larger than a beach ball. As soon as all the water finished combining, he fired it off. The densely-packed water acted as a hyper-magnet that drew dozens of bolts of lightning as it flew through the air. The blast attracted and contained over sixty-three terawatts of power as a result of the collective electricity. Seeing that the incoming projectile was full of lightning, Nukpana did not try to dodge or counter and instead allowed the blast to hit him, thinking that Warra made the worst mistake possible by sending him all that energy. As Warra predicted, Nukpana willingly absorbed all the captured lightning from the water blast. However, the demon did not know or realize at any point how much power he was actually absorbing, and was therefore unprepared for the massive surge in energy within his body.
"What did you do?!" Nukpana yelled in a high-pitched growl. "WHY?! THIS IS TOO MUCH! DAMN YOU!" His body could not even come close to handling the enormous and irrepressible power he had absorbed. The energy completely overran him, a demonic shriek escaping the gargoyle's body as it literally burst from all the absorbed energy. The lightning escaped from Nukpana's exploding body and zapped off in randomized directions, including at Warra. Luckily, he had anticipated the recoil and had a wall of water in front of him to take the strike instead. Intense winds blew through and scattered the remains of Nukpana all around the bottom level and then up into the atmosphere.
"You guys need to hurry and get to the Air Gemstone now!" Warra yelled up to the Moirai. Marut and Bowser sprinted across to the other side of the top perimeter and dropped down from one of the gaps in the inner wall onto the gemstone platform. Wasting no time, Bowser took out the Dimensional Mirror and aimed it at the Air Gemstone, allowing Marut to direct his elemental air energy through the lens and consequently at the gemstone itself.
After a couple minutes of concentration and energy release highlighted by the frantic lightning and increasing winds, the Air Gemstone gave off a lively glow, signifying that the air element had returned to its normal state. Slowly, the weather began to ease up. The lighting ceased, the raging funnel clouds calmed, and the dense cloud cover opened up to golden cracks that the sun attempted to shine through. The winds cutoff and died down, leaving the atmosphere in a peaceful quiet. Daisy, Grekka, and Athelstan jumped down to join Warra as Marut and Bowser leapt off the platform to regroup with their them.
"Amazing," said Athelstan. "Throughout all that, this great shrine in the sky not only remained whole and standing, but didn't even sway or jostle around. The ancients had technology that we can't even comprehend."
"Nor would I want to try to," Bowser remarked. "I don't know what's worse to try and think about; how this shrine was built or how people are able to build smart tech that's smaller than my finger."
"Very clever, Warra," said Daisy. "None of us would have thought of it. Grekka was the only one even aware of what you were doing, and it looked like Nukpana himself never noticed it either."
"Until it was too late, that is," added Athelstan.
"Why didn't you just let me do the lightning, bro?" Marut asked. "It would've been more direct that way."
"Marut," said Warra. "You would not have been able to generate nearly as much lightning on your own even if you used up all your power in trying to do so. The only way to gather enough was to manipulate the lightning that was already being produced from up above, just as Nukpana was taking advantage of it as well."
"Maybe you should look into being a covert agent or joining the special ops," Althestan commented with a laugh. "That was deviously brilliant!"
"In a way, I was back at my homeland," Warra said as he put a hand behind his head. "Fun fact; if that was pure, distilled water, that tactic would've failed. Water needs impurities to be the conductor everyone always makes it out to be!"
Bowser and Athelstan grunted in dumbstruck expressions. "That's twice you gambled like that now!" the Koopa King shouted.
"Not really," Warra replied. "I knew that the atmosphere always has the necessary impurities in it. I just didn't know how much lightning I was supposed to attract so I kinda...guessed!"
"What do you mean you guessed?!" Bowser and Athelstan yelled in unison.
"Well, if I didn't have enough lightning gathered..." Warra began explaining while rubbing his nose. "Then...he would've absorbed it all without issue and I would've basically made him really overpowered...to the point where not even Grekka would've beaten him."
"You inconsistent bastard!" Daisy shouted. "Why were you heckling me at the Water Shrine just for you yourself to be straight-up reckless here?!"
"I guess you're starting to rub off on me!" said Warra, trying to both justify himself and laugh off the lack of caution. "Sorry guys! I know I'm usually more careful but I guess we all can have our impulsive moments every once in a while!" He kept laughing as Bowser and Athelstan both fell over on their faces in shock.
Daisy sighed and then smiled. "That's the last thing I expected from you, Warra."
"You got that right!" Bowser griped.
"Well, the air element has been purified!" Marut cheered with multiple fist pumps. "No more nightmares for me!"
"Yeah," said Daisy. "And now, we head to the Ice Shrine."